To Cork or Not To Cork?

(My Personal Opinion - This was taken from one of the Wine Articles I write for a local Advertising book ) The perfect presentation!

A very expensive bottle of wine and the careful removal of the foil, slowly extracting the cork, and then feeling the cork between your fingers and finally giving it a sniff. This has been going on for decades and decades. Considering all the wine that is consumed in the United States, where do all those corks come from? After all, corks are not re-used.
Wine corks come from Cork Oak trees grown in Portugal and Spain. These trees can live up to 120 years. The cork is taken from the bark only after the tree is about 25 years old. Then it will take another 9 to 12 years before another cork harvest can be done. The quality of cork has been decreasing over the years, contrary to what some corkers may say. We have seen more and more ‘corked (spoiled)’ wines because of inferior corks.

Someone came up with the next idea. That gave birth to the artificial corks. To me, they have failed because they are so hard and difficult to extract. Way too often the end result is a broken wine bottle or cork screw.

So, what’s the best solution? ———- The Metal Screw Top!!!!

Are you kidding?

Nope, the screw top is probably the best way to preserve wine and keep it fresh. The worst enemy of wine is oxygen and the screw top is very efficient in keeping the two apart. Unfortunately, it’s more of a physiological thing. When people think of screw tops they think of cheaper jug wines.

That will change and already has. You will see more and more screw tops on so many different wines. Many winemakers are switching over to the screw tops and that is good news for the consumer. Why? There are two valid reasons for doing this.

* Use of metal screw tops is cheaper than the cork per bottle, therefore the final cost of the wine can be somewhat less.
* The screw top eliminates wines going bad from being ‘corked’. The screw top is more convenient than those vacuum plugs and is more effective in keeping your wine fresh.

In a short time, you will see more and more wines switching over to the screw tops. What will really speed up this change is when the wine giants , The Mondavi’s The, Kendall Jackson’s and The Berringer’s switch over. Once they do, you will see so many other companies I follow right behind.

But with any change, there always comes some skepticism. Some people feel that the metal cap will have a negative impact on the wines. I’ve been assured by two different chemical engineers, that the screw tops for wine bottles are coated to protect from any corrosion or contamination. I’ve been in and out of the wine industry for almost 40 years now and I have never heard of a bottle of wine that was spoiled by a metal screw top.

I am 100% behind the resurgence of the screw top. I see only one minor drawback.

Picture this: You are at a fancy restaurant, celebrating an anniversary or some other special event. You order a nice bottle of wine to go with your meal. When the waiter brings you the wine, you really want the ambiance of the waiter removing the foil, slowly pulling the cork out, then placing the cork down for your inspection.

I just can’t figure out a way that the metal screw cap can capture the romantic moment.

In my opinion, the switch to screwtops can't happen fast enough. I've had far too many lovingly aged bottles from my cellar whose contents were ruined by TCA.

The only drawback I've seen so far is that I've had some trouble with a few screwtop-enclosed bottles and my nitrogen dispensing system--the in-bottle dispenser won't close on the bottleneck's walls properly for some reason.

-Paul W.

We have this problem with about 80% of our screw tops. We use a 4 bottle nitrogen dispenser system. On the screw top bottles, I've tried everything from rubber bands to duck tape to ensure a close fit. That works, but I have noticed losing some nitrogen. What worked the best for us, was to use the foil wrap from some other corked bottle and wrap that around the piece going into the bottle. So far that has been working without problems

As is fairly well known (just look at my "moniker") I am one of those who continues to object to screw caps when used on anything but wines meant to be consumed quite young. You are correct in that one of my great nightmares relates to that future date when I will find myself at Alain Ducasse (NY or Monte Carlo), order the great 2015 vintage (believe me 2015 will be a great vintage for Bordeaux) of Chateau Lafite, the sommelier approaches my table, discretely shows me the label, moves a bit away and opens the bottle with that horrible scrunching sound that a screwcap makes. At that point I will find a 357 magnum pistol, shoot the sommelier and then put the pistol in my mouth.

But then again, as Hoke (and others) acknowledge, I have chosen the name "curmudgeon" for good reason.

Best
Rogov

P.S. And no, other than this post, I am not going to get into the screwcap discussion once again. Basta!!!

P.S. And no, other than this post, I am not going to get into the screwcap discussion once again. Basta!!!

Aha! Plant your stake in the ground, then run away, eh?

For an otherwise brilliant guy for whom I have the utmost respect, you sure do let your little romantic streak get in the way of enjoying perfectly good (i.e., non-corktainted) wine, Daniel.

I'd much rather hear a 'schrink' of the screwcap (although I think you're vastly over-inflating the moment and the sound there) when opening a cherished and well-aged bottle of Lafite at a special dinner than hear the dreaded "Sorry, it's corked" from the sommelier pronouncing the death of what should have been a perfectly splendid wine.

Ceremony is splendid and heritage is important---but when you let the ceremony become more important than the event, or let the tree bark stopper become more important than the wine inside the bottle....then I do believe the curmudgeonliness has severly gotten in the way of your common sense. Strange priorities there.

Count me in the, okay I'll say it, "romance of the cork" group...

Of course that should come as zero surprise to anyone by now. I would hope...

(Ducking from the assault of flying screwcaps...)

Jeff

Aha! Plant your stake in the ground, then run away, eh?

Hoke...

And who (or what) would I be without that romantic streak? May I refer you to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRdfX7ut8gw

Warmest
Rogov

Aha! Plant your stake in the ground, then run away, eh?

Hoke...

And who (or what) would I be without that romantic streak? May I refer you to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRdfX7ut8gw

Warmest
Rogov

Hah! Knew you couldn't resist the repartee.

[David M. Bueker]

I tried like crazy to stop buying cork finished wines with the 2007 vintage. Unfortunatley the screw cap closure has not penetrated the market enough. I did manage to buy 85% screw cap with my 2009 German Riesling purchases, with only Donnhoff as a holdout.

I buy a lot of wines under "alternative" closures. That includes screw caps, glass corks and the DIAM cork. So far, with aging experience back to the 2002 vintage (Austria) I have had no issues. THe personal experiment continues.

When people think of screw tops they think of cheaper jug wines.

Maybe they think of cheaper jug wines because people like you write articles that puts this idea into their heads?

Picture this: You are at a fancy restaurant, celebrating an anniversary or some other special event. You order a nice bottle of wine to go with your meal. When the waiter brings you the wine, you really want the ambiance of the waiter removing the foil, slowly pulling the cork out, then placing the cork down for your inspection.

I just can’t figure out a way that the metal screw cap can capture the romantic moment.

The ambiance of the waiter cracking the screw cap with a flourish, and being able to demonstrate that the bottle has not been tampered with and that the wine will be in top fettle is much more romantic to me.

Here in NZ screw cap usage has reached about 95%, I think, and of the rest many are using Diam closures. Cork has definitely had it's day here. Yay!

From what I can tell, there seems to be some overstatement of the issue of cork taint and an understatement of uncertainty regarding long term aging of red wines under screw caps.

The corks we use have a TCA rate between .2% and 1.2% depending on which exact cork we use.

I am aware that not so many years ago those figures would be closer to 5%. Cork technology has improved considerably, and we probably owe that to the use of screw caps competing with corks.

I am not sure about the claims that Screw Caps are cheaper. I have never priced them. We pay 10 cents per cork for most of our corks. We are a VERY small producer, so we purchase them in lots of 10k or less.

The other issue to keep in mind is that if a small winery has already invested in corking equipment, the cost to switch over may be substantial. So, the cost comparison may need to be made differently for a start-up vs an existing vs some who will use a service for bottling.

My 2 cents.

[David M. Bueker]

If we were wedded to other anachronisms the way we are to cork it would be considered unacceptable to pick up a lady in a Porsche convertible, as there would not be the romance of the horse drawn carriage.

Don't get me wrong, the carriage has its place (Central Park, French Quarter, etc), but it's rather impractical for many fantastic, life list places. Like the cork it is an anachronism.

[David M. Bueker]

The other issue to keep in mind is that if a small winery has already invested in corking equipment, the cost to switch over may be substantial. So, the cost comparison may need to be made differently for a start-up vs an existing vs some who will use a service for bottling.

So as a consumer I am expected to suffer a defective closure in order to support the winery's bottom line? Sorry, but no way.

Ron wrote;“
The worst enemy of wine is oxygen…”

Some people here are too much of a “wine geek” to fall for that very blunt definition.

Hi David,
As a “wine geek” (aka Riesling and Rocks guy) let me ask you this- why is Donnhoff a holdout? Did you stop buying Donnhoff wines because some of them are still under cork?

Salute

[David M. Bueker]

I have not asked Helmut Donnhoff. Terry Theise has talked to him, and he has said he will not change from natural cork. I toyed with directly confronting Helmut with the 5 bottles of corked 2001 Leistenberg Kabinett that I suffered with, but decided against it.

I still buy Donnhoff, though only about 10% of what I used to buy.

It is great to see people who feel so strongly about wine and how it should be stored.

Allow me to begin by saying sorry for the long post. I have no dogmatic or romantic attachment to the cork. I enjoy wines that have screw caps. The reasons that I fall on the cork side of this discussion are practical.

In my earlier post, I mentioned that the cost of corks vs screw caps is not clear cut enough to be covered with a single blanket claim that they are cheaper. There is more to this than the simple cost of the cap/cork itself. This is my response to Ron’s claim.

Any consumer is free to limit, or try to limit, their consumption to one type of closure or the other. It seems to me that while you are free to not taste wines that come with corks, this would eliminate lots of interesting small batch wines that you might otherwise enjoy.

Any producer is free to choose the type of closure that suits them best for whatever variety of reasons. We continue to use corks. The cork provider we use has made great strides in reducing the rate of TCA. The corks we use on our white wines have taint rate in the range of 1 bottle out of 500 - 1000. My family drinks an average of around 2 of these per day. It has been over 1.5 years since we have had a tainted bottle of our white wine. Now, some might say there are variations in ability to detect TCA. True enough. But we know what these wines are supposed to taste like. My stepfather, Joe Collins, is a champion wine taster, along with being our winemaker. These are aromatic white wines. TCA sticks out like a sore thumb if it is there. We have made every effort to select the best corks available. Not a single customer has complained about our corks.

From my POV, for red wines that might age beyond a couple of years, the jury is still out on the use of caps. I have limited experience with red wines aged under metal, but the few I have tasted have not expressed the same was as cork age wines of similar age. I know this is a heated topic, but based on the % of the top red wines that still use cork, I’d say that it is far from settled in favor of metal at the very least. Time will tell on this. This is leads to an additional practical reason to stick with corks for all of our wines. Otherwise we would need both sets of equipment.

I mean no offense to you personally, David, but we will be fine whether or not you ever taste our wines. We only make 1500 case per year total. We sell it all. That said, I do think that if you enjoy tart aromatic white wines, you might like our Humboldt SB, Mendocino Arneis, or Humboldt Brut Sparkling (methode champenoise). Each of these has a unique flavor profile and expresses the site from which the grapes come. Of course, if you do find a corked bottle, we’d be happy to replace it.

In the end, the consumer is the winner as cap and corks compete in the marketplace. I am convinced that the use of caps has been a key factor in the improvement of corks. I think both have a place in the market and both have limits. Both great and foul wines can be found inside bottles closed with each type of closure. Enjoy the wines. Don’t marry one type of closure or the other.

Ron, I am again finding your notes interesting and informative. I have weighed in on cork discussions from a purely “romantic” (to me the attraction is deeper, but this is the term everybody uses) standpoint, not giving a hoot about the science involved – except the science of psychology, if you want to think of psychology as a natural science.

The reason I don’t give a hoot is for the same reason other’s do. In business school, you learn if you are in sales that you need at least four distinctly different approaches to sell an idea because there are four distinctly different personality types. You can keep dividing the types into 8 or 16 typologies, but let’s say there are four. A thinker type personality (or a sensate type) doesn’t relate to arguments about romance, etc. You need to be an emotional or intuitive type to do that. A thinker type will just want things to be rational (or what they perceive as being rational, at least). “What is rational about spoiled wine, if you can prevent it?” they will argue. (I don’t even like to think about sensate personalities – they are the folks from Missouri who say, “I don’t believe anything unless I see it.” Let them drink Merlot. )

An intuitive type like moi might see the rational argument clearly but in addition employ the rationality of understanding that there are different personality types to give the intuitive and emotional types their due. When I add everything up rationally, and then add in the emotional and intuitive considerations, I will choose a cork over a screw cap.

In my case, for example, my intuitive nature has probably enhanced my ability to make money to the degree that I do not feel a financial pinch in pouring a classed growth down the drain, and I usually buy more than one bottle of any wine I appreciate. So for me, and possibly for others not pinching pennies, how would it be even rational to give up a moment of “romance” in this millisecond (I know Shakespeare said an hour) on stage separated by eternity in both directions? Unless you parted your hair low over the ear and didn’t give a hoot about romance.

[David M. Bueker]

Andrew,

I would be very intruiged to try your wines, and would not dismiss them because of the closure, as long as you are willing to stand behind any bottles that are defective due to the closure. Most wineries are, though I once ran across an individual producer that told me it was the price of being a wine lover - I dropped them like a hot rock.

I'm with Covert on this one, though I am convinced that 50%-75% of wine today should be under screw-cap. I am comfortable with the fact that there will be defects, though with a reduces demand on the cork producers we should be able to keep TCA to under 2%, and quite frankly, that adds to the intrigue and overall wine experience, sort of like a dove shoot. If every one you went on was perfect that would take away from the experience. Just my opinion.

FYI, corks from high quality producers are already under 2%.

I agree that there are plenty of wines that would be well served by screw caps that are currently under cork.

There is plenty of room in the market for both.

My 10 cents.

I'm with Covert on this one, though I am convinced that 50%-75% of wine today should be under screw-cap. I am comfortable with the fact that there will be defects, though with a reduces demand on the cork producers we should be able to keep TCA to under 2%, and quite frankly, that adds to the intrigue and overall wine experience, sort of like a dove shoot. If every one you went on was perfect that would take away from the experience. Just my opinion.

I'm with Covert on this one, though I am convinced that 50%-75% of wine today should be under screw-cap. I am comfortable with the fact that there will be defects, though with a reduces demand on the cork producers we should be able to keep TCA to under 2%, and quite frankly, that adds to the intrigue and overall wine experience, sort of like a dove shoot. If every one you went on was perfect that would take away from the experience. Just my opinion.

Thanks, Richard. I think this is the first time, at least in my memory, that anybody on this forum but I shared anything close to what we are saying. And I agree with your follow-on comment about the intrigue of the chasse. Having every wine be perfect is a little like Mark Twain's idea of Heaven (and mine of Mr. Rogers' neighborhood) and why he didn't want to arrive there. And I further concur that most wines should be manufactured under screw cap. When I buy a 2009 California Pinot Noir at the local wine store to accompany a Thursday night broiled salmon filet at home, screwing off its little cap to the expected freshness is just fine and even preferable. But, on a Saturday night, when after my wife fixes her hair, puts on fresh makeup, lights the candle on the kitchen table, and asks me with an anticipatory smile what I have brought her from the cellar, I really don't want to have to screw off the top of some otherwise elegant, mature beauty, which should be appropriately dressed for the occasion. But again, that’s just me, and from what I am reading, you; a lot of people don’t like to fuss.

I am at a total loss to understand what is romantic either about a waiter removing a cork from a bottle or handing it to you.

The first is a delay in getting to the wine.

The second is unecessary meaningless idiotic flim-flam and a reminder that your romantic evening has an up to 5% chance of being ruined because you're going to have to tell the waiter the wine is corked.

I can only think the writer hasn't had enough bottles closed with a screwcap for it to become normal.

[David M. Bueker]

FYI, corks from high quality producers are already under 2%.

I am sure that statistics like that are a great comfort to someone who purchased 100 bottles of the same wine. The issue is when I plunk down a substantial chunk of money for my one or two bottles of a wine - and one (or both) is corked. The percentages don't mean that much to me anymore. There is nothing romantic about dumping what should have been a great wine down the drain.

Has anyone noticed....... that every time this subject arises we all (myself included) say precisely the same things we have said in the past.

I propose that we call a moratorium on the subject of corks vs. alternate closures until:

(a) Some radically new invention comes along to grab our attention
(b) Chateaux Lafite, Margaux and Cheval Blanc start using screwcaps
(c) The sky actually falls
(d) The cow finally succeeds in jumping over the moon
(e) I am served a bottle of Lafite under screwcap and do not either shoot the sommelier or commit suicide

Best
Rogov