And another thing about screwcaps...

[Jenise]

....ordered three bottles under screwcap from California. They arrived Thursday in a lateral wine box--flat, wide, one-bottle deep--all bottles laying down--and two were leakers. Wouldn't have shown up if the bottles had been standing up the whole trip, but in the flat/wide/short boxes like this they will lay down for the whole trip. Got a full refund and get to keep the bottles because they don't want leakers going back through the system, but this is the first time I've had this particular problem with screw caps so thought it worth mentioning.

That's interesting. I've been getting screwcap wines from Coffaro since the early 90s, and Chenin Blanc and "Fume blanc" from Dry Creek Vineyards in screwcap for at least 20 years. I've never found a leaker.
However, none of those wines had experienced the woe of being shipped in the flat boxes, and I've picked up the majority of them at the winery.
I was picking up club wines today, and I was chatting with the tasting room guy at Coffaro about screwcap experiences. He said he doesn't remember any returns for leakers, though they've had a very few returns for "off tastes."

[David M. Bueker]

Wonder if the box got badly jostled. Or the caps could have been hit prior. I have never had that happen, and I have had hundreds of screw capped bottles delivered.

[Jenise]

I've had a couple one-off (that is, I only had one bottle) screw cap issues. And one time I had a bad batch of six pinots wherein one or two bottles were okay, four were fizzy and with loose screwcaps, and at least two of that group were so loose you didn't even have to turn it--just pull it off whole, capsule and all. I'm sure those were delivered standing up or they'd have leaked all over.

The box in this case was large enough to hold magnums so the bottles slid left to right when the driver handed it to Bob--in fact Bob thought perhaps the bottles were broken. They weren't but every time this got box handled, they, and the wine inside, would have moved.

[David M. Bueker]

Not good for caps.

Producer using caps for a while, or new to them? I ask because virtually every odd cap issue I have seen was with a producer new to the closure, and bottling issues.

[Jenise]

Don't know but I'm guessing this is a change for this producer, Margerum (Santa Barbara). I've bought a lot of Margerum wines over the years and all were under cork, in fact come to think of it I bought his grenache blanc blend last year and I know those weren't screw capped. These being screw caps from that particular winery (above-average classy), even before I realized they were leaking, certainly surprised me.

[David M. Bueker]

So probably a mobile bottling line then.

Don't think I can recall a single leaker with a screw cap and we buy lots as local wineries use them for wines intended for early consumption (usually whites and pinks). Perhaps a misadjustment on the mobile bottling line that a lot of small wineries use?

[Jenise]

Don't think I can recall a single leaker with a screw cap and we buy lots as local wineries use them for wines intended for early consumption (usually whites and pinks). Perhaps a misadjustment on the mobile bottling line that a lot of small wineries use?

More often than not, screwcaps are used on white wines and I have the impression that we drink a lot more white wine than you do so my exposure to such issues is likely greater. Not just loose caps but ones that though not leaking, you realize weren't a tight seal when you went to unscrew them and the wine inside was fizzy, so obviously compromised from an insufficient seal. The other big lot that I mentioned having an issue with were NZ pinots, and of course almost everything from NZ except cabernet is under screw cap.

I would think fizzy would indicate a very tight seal.
Ive not had a leaky screwcap, biggest issue I've had is with reduced wines (and that seems to be becoming less frequent)

[David M. Bueker]

Fizzy is either a really tight seal preventing any and all escape of trapped CO2 (the amount of which can vary depending on production methods), or a flawed (refermenting) wine to begin with.

[Jenise]

Fizzy is either a really tight seal preventing any and all escape of trapped CO2 (the amount of which can vary depending on production methods), or a flawed (refermenting) wine to begin with.

Makes sense. However, I did experience some fizz with the last faulty screwcapped wine I had so kind of thought it related.

Don't know but I'm guessing this is a change for this producer, Margerum (Santa Barbara). I've bought a lot of Doug Margerum's wines over the years and all were under cork, in fact come to think of it I bought his grenache blanc blend last year and I am pretty sure those weren't screw capped.

Interesting, Jenise. Margerum's parents were good friends of mine (She was the long-time Democratic mayor* of West Lafayette, IN and he was a colleague of mine in the Chemistry department of Purdue)

* Sonya Margerum once regaled us with stories of Marilyn Quayle as a Purdue undergrad: one of the frats wanted to name a wing after her

[Jenise]

Fun story, Mark.