Alternative Wine Closures

Indeed it does, sometimes with great results...

In the end I get the feeling that all this talk about oxygen migration in (IMHO defective) corks is just satisfaction about getting those damn long aging wines to age prematurely.

What if one invented a special gadget that one pokes through perfectly viable corks, in order to promote better aging? A syringe needle with a filter membrane mounted at the end, or something like that. I bet with good marketing one could sell that. Call it a bad cork simulator...

;-)

Mike Tommasi, Six Fours, France email link

Salut/Hi Michael Pronay,

le/on 2 Feb 2005 11:00:34 GMT, tu disais/you said:-

I have to say that I remain unconvinced here. However ....

just without TCA

And there I think we agree. And I'm also sure that we agree 100% that at the very least we should have the choice of what closure shoud be used.

The article I wrote up about our 1995 Bordeaux tasting ("The Cork Disaster") to be published in the next issue of "Vinaria" is not at all friendly with the growers. It will make a storm in a thimble - since at least a few growers do actually read my annual

10 years after report - and all I can hope for is to slightly lift blinkers from the Bordelais' heads.

M.

You have introduced "fruit scalping" rather quickly here without any additional comments. Please flesh this out and address how the consumer is expected to deal with it. Bill

Hi Bi!! I drink almost exclusively Oz wines (around 90% of my consumption) and I find much lower rates of TCA than is reported here. In 2004 I opened

4 TCA tainted bottles of which 1 was undrinkable (my partner found them all undrinkable). I noted 177 bottles opened in this period (that doesn't count 3 weeks I spent on holiday in the States, tastings, trade shows, samples etc. but my private collection only). I also drank a few wines that were past their best or a little too oxidized for unreserved enjoyment but I don't think this had much to do with the producer but more my cellar management. This is around 2 - 2.5% taint which would be fairly indicative from my purely anecdotal evidence. I, like others in this thread, find this still too high and look forward to being able to make the choice of which closure I would rather purchase my wine in. Something I already do with the Rieslings I buy to age. Cheers Andrew

It's the simple fact what many might call an "off bottle": Without any discernable traces of TCA (mould etc.) or other faulty taints (oxidation, musty aromas), the wine simply doesn't reflect what it should be: little to no fruit, a lack of charm, a bottle that "doesn't ring" - while the back-up bottle does.

These taints are the most serious and the most difficult to pin down, because you can only do so by *knowing* the wine. It's almost impossible to find them in blind tastings.

In our Bordeaux '95 tasting, both bottles of Grand Puy-Lacoste (coming from the chateau) where only so-so, something around 82 points on the Parker scale, or even less. I attribute this performance to the fruit scalping phenomenon for the simple reason that GPL '95 a Parker 95/100 wine. It *cannot* taste like this in good shape.

M.

And the "fruit scalping" is caused by bad corks? Corks which are TCA contaminated but not bad enough to cause the recognizable corked taste? Or is there some other factor? Bill

Seems so, since this phenomenon does not occur under other closures.

I don't know, in fact. It might be this below-theshold TCA or some other kind of taint - 6 or 7 chemical substances have been reported tainting wine too, albeit in a much less evident way than higher TCA concentration.

Don't think so.

M.

so, art ... now that you've told the world that betsy's an idiot, can we also infer that your paradigm of humor is gilligan;s island?

Hi Stratemeyer,

I just come across this resource

it says they developed first aluminum wine closure. Its quiet interesting thing right. You can have a look it might give you good information

Well, it seems tests are starting to appear.

"California winery that has been bottling a few bottles of good red wine wi th screw caps every year for about 12 years. They have also taken some of t he same wine that is closed with a cork and they have been storing them all right beside each other. Now they have begun to taste the older wines. The y have invited very knowledgeable wine people to do this. They are not just relying on their own opinions. The consensus is that there is no differenc e in these wines, at least up until now."

Read more:

with screw caps every year for about 12 years. They have also taken some of the same wine that is closed with a cork and they have been storing them a ll right beside each other. Now they have begun to taste the older wines. T hey have invited very knowledgeable wine people to do this. They are not ju st relying on their own opinions. The consensus is that there is no differe nce in these wines, at least up until now."

I believe that several New Zealand Wineries had done that in the past. They found that screwcap closures were still fine after ten years and the wine in the fresh while ones with cork had faded and picked up darker color and not great tastes. This was with white wine but many of the wineries in Cent ral Otago found the same for their Pinots. I think cork closures should pro bably go away forever but then, this could spell the end for many businesse s such as people who make corkscrews, Coravin, etc as well as the Portugese wine industry.