By Linda

June 19, 2008 10:33 AM | Link to this

It has been a while since I added any comments. Some friends and I did a taste test of 2 identitcal wines that one had been sealed with a cork and the other with a screw top. There was a difference in the taste. By the way it was a blind tasting. The one with the cork was slightly better. Both the cork and the screw top (metal) will effect the taste of the wine when layed down for awhile. As for the plastic bottle comment in a earlier blog - they now are linking plastic bottles to breast cancer etc. I doubt if we see the day that many wines go to plastic.

By chris

June 18, 2008 11:49 AM | Link to this

It’s nice to see consumers weighing in on the cork versus screw cap issue. But as an actual producer I have been using cork for many years and have opened hundreds of bottles over the last few years for tastings and have not had the taint issues that the users of screw caps seem to claim. After all if you do find a bottle with tca you can generally always return it for a new bottle! As for the Bio-dynamics comment, it’s not just about hitting carbon neutral, but rather doing everything you can to reduce your imprint on the enviroment. Yes we all have to drive cars and use tractors in our vineyards, but that doesn’t mean we can’t try and reduce the use of other high carbon output products. It’s funny how the users of screwcaps are always trying to demonize corks as a way to justify screwcaps use. I don’t beleive their is a CORRECT enclosure, just CORRECT for your winery and your outlook. And if it just boils down to ease of opening for the consumer, buy a beer, it’s got a pop top.

By ZipperGangJL

June 17, 2008 10:22 PM | Link to this

I have spent over 40 years in the wine business as a salesperson. I have sold almost every premium wine brand from California, plus France, Italy, Australia, etc. At a dinner with a very famous winemaker about 10 years ago, I asked the question, “Given your choice of closure for all your wines, which one would you use?” Without hesitation, he said, “I’d screw cap them all from my $150.00 Reserve Cabernet down my inexpensive California 1.5’s. Nothing frustrates me as a winemaker more, than to see wine returned because of a bad cork. We get the best cork I can buy, but I have no control over the quality of the individual corks that go into the bottles like I do with my wines.” That comment was made to me about 10 years ago by this very famous winemaker. Finally now today screw caps on varietal wines are becoming common place. I also remember when Liquor 1.75 Liters went from glass to plastic. The hue and cry went up. “This will never work. It changes the taste of the liquor. The public won’t accept plastic.” Blah,blah blah!! Well guess what, walk up and down the shelves of a liquor store you will see most inexpensive liquor in plastic plus small sizes are also in plastic. The bottom line is change will occur. It’s just a matter of time, say 5 years or so. What will hold up the change is the cost to the wineries of updating the bottling lines to accept screw cap bottles. When that is done I predict most $20.00 and under wines will in fact be screw capped.

By Ed

June 17, 2008 9:16 PM | Link to this

C’mon Mick. There’s probably more metal in the computer you used to type that message, than in all the screw caps you would use in a year. What about the wasted resources in terms of bottles, storage, shipping, etc. for corked bottles of wine? To make cork versus screw caps a save the whales environmental issue is just kind of silly. Oh, by the way. Mark, I think screw caps are the way to go. One or two really expensive bottles of wine that are corked will make up your mind for you.

By Jim T.

June 17, 2008 8:02 PM | Link to this

Interesting comment, Mick. To some extent I agree with the direction you are going, but let’s look at it this way. Do you drive a car? Take the bus? Use air travel? Ride a bicycle? Chances are that unless you are wearing natural leather shoes with cork soles and walking everywhere you go your mode of transportation uses much more resources than one small Stelvin closure. I’m all for saving the environment but deciding that a metal closure on a bottle of wine is the one thing that will push us over the edge is a bit of a reach. If I buy and drink a wine from a bio-dynamic vineyard that uses recycled glass bottles and a gravity flow winery would it be acceptable for them to use a Stelvin closure and call the whole thing carbon neutral?

By Mick

June 17, 2008 5:13 PM | Link to this

Ever considered what it takes to grow a tree versus how much energy is expended to mine bauxite for making screwcaps? How about the amounts of CO2 emitted in the processes involved in making screwcaps (mining, smeltering etc.)Carbon emissions are a real issue for the wine industry and natural corks are sourced from trees and trees consume CO2. Open pit mines don’t. Cheapest does not always equate to best, on many levels.

By Maitre_Z

June 17, 2008 4:04 PM | Link to this

Screw caps are the way to go. Cork taint is the result of an out-dated technology and is essentially inexcusable in this day and age.

By howard

June 17, 2008 3:05 PM | Link to this

The twist-off cap is a no-brainer, the best closure for an expensive bottle of wine. Recently had a 2001 Quixote Petite Syrah that was amazing. All their wines are under twist-off and the wines rock. I’ve seen/experienced nothing to convince me there is any downside to a twist-off. It’s time we stopped over-romanticizing a piece of tree bark as the ideal.

By Richard Shaffer

June 17, 2008 9:18 AM | Link to this

Where Is The Love with screwcaps? I’m mixed - in a lot of ways I prefer screwcaps - easy access when traveling or on a picnic etc. But there’s a kind of ritual romance you can only get with a cork.

By John

June 17, 2008 7:56 AM | Link to this

Screwcaps are the future for wine producers and wine consumers. They preserve the wine better, are easier to open, and cheaper for the wine producer than corks. With screwcaps there is less chance of wine spoilage. I wouldn’t hesitate to cellar a wine with screwcap for five years assuming if I could wait that long.