Parker looks to 2015

That offering was available with cork and with a screw cap. I believe the screw cap was $10 more than the bottles with cork (because of the extra cost?).

And are they still doing screw caps?

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Good point and you are welcome :-). But, for some reason, most people I know don't seem to be TCA sensitive...? It could be a trait of Scandinavian genes or that very many people around here have little idea what a good wine should be like (most likely). However, I'll admit to having encountered many unimpressive red wines with little or no fruit - and normally attribute that to "a lousy product, won't buy again" or "poorly stored, bad luck" or "too old, fruit is gone" - where the correct answer would have been TCA, TCA and TCA! Anders

We had a thread several years ago about Brettanomyces and how a majority of wine drinkers are totally insensitive to this problem, mostly drinkers of French wines since it is commonly found in Chateau Pichon- Lalande, Chateau de Beaucastel and Domaine Tempier's Bandol from Provence. But some people really react strongly to it.

Bordeaux, especially the top flight wineries will never abandon cork as long as the wines are sought after in the world market. I suspect the same goes for Burgundy, and the Rhone. There will be traditional cork supporters throughout other countries where cork is equated to prestige/romance etc.

So if the problem is too little high quality cork and/or expensive technologies to insure reliability; increased use of Stelvins, screwtops and other closures will reduce demand for cork and thus a diminution in the need for inferior cork products to satisfy the market. So quality control measures will weed out the elements that contribute the use of poor material.

So my prediction is less and more expensive cork but a higher percentage of reliability.

Only if improving cork production takes on the objections, quasi-moral and religious, similar to conducting of stem cell research, will the quality of corks remain the same or decline.

By G-d and Ashcroft we may not reduce incidents of Alzheimer's, AIDS, or cancer but when coherent we won't be bitching about a cork damaged bottle of Chateau Ephemeral in 2015.

Yesterday evening: Tasting 27 wines from Styria, Austria, from 27 different producers (25 dry whites, 1 red, 1 sweet TBA). 1 wine oxidized (obviously leaking cork), back-up bottle heavily TCA'ed, third bottle brillant. 4 other wines less than brillant, back-up bottles beautiful. I leave it to your maths to do the statistics.

I don't deny TCA infections of wineries, and apart from the ones you stated there are the well-known examples of Ducru-Beaucaillou and Canon, but all these have in common that TCA is to be found in whole batches, while typical cork TCA (plus oxidation plus fruit scalping) *is* random.

At least I can support my assertions with a statistically valid number of samples per year.

M.

No. After a year or so they start to age much faster, after two years most of the wines I know are prematurely oxidized.

M.

I would taste about 1500+ wines a year. I am sensitive to TCA. I don't get anywhere near the figures for affected wines that you do.

Ron Lel

Yep. You can buy the chardonnay with cork or stelvin. The reserve cab appears to be sold only as a pair of bottles: one of each. See

Michael, you scare me! Most of my producers switched to synthetic corks in the last three years. I need at least five years to drink these bottles. I have the impression that not only wines for fast consumption are corked synthetically, but also those which hold for 5+ years.

Martin

Scandinavian

Anders, I can assure you, it's not the Scandinavian genes. I am the slowest one in our tasting group. While I admire the wine's color, the others already swallowed and make a lot of comments about the interesting toasting of the barrique and so on. A short sniff makes me cry out: "Nonsense, dear folks. This wine is corked." They make big eyes in their amazement. Finally our winemaker (group member) shrugs his sholders and sighs: "You're right, of course."

My wife, for instance, is totally cork-insensitive. When I tasted a wine in a restaurant and thought it's slightly corked, I let taste her and she liked it. So we drank it. But with aeration the TCA smell gets worse and worse. The last glass was barely drinkable. Maybe this is the verdict in the dispute about "breathing and vapors": Don't let breathe a corked wine ;-)

Not necessarily. If all bottles are unimpressive, chances are good that the product is lousy. Another question is:"Why did I like the wine when tasting it at the winery or in the wine shop, when all six bottles I bought are crap?"

Martin

That is a brillant idea. Lay two bottles down side by side the proof is at hand. Great way to change attitudes and work in the new product.

Exactly. I never quite have understood the "but not all TCA-contamination is cork-related" argument against stelvins. Winery contamination is probably the case with most BVs or late-80s Ducrus, but when one bottle of '94 L-Poyferre or one bottle of '89 Talbot out of a case is spoiled, that's the damn cork! My post re the large Bdx tasting Saturday was the first time in recent memory that I didn't run across a single contaminated bottle in a big lineup (about 20 wines). Dale

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I take it they were all sealed with stelvin? (Just kidding!)

Ron lel

So be happy - and let me have srewcaps. At least for pre-ordered/pre-paid wines!

M.

My best wishes to you, but be prepared. And dont tell me I didn't warn you ... ;-(

M.

I have NO PROBLEM with you being able to get your Stelvins when you pre-order.

In my case I am going to order the Plumpjack Cab since they offer a 6 pack wtih 3 Cork and 3 Screw Caps. I should see for myself---Hold 5 years or so and try 1 ea.

Candidly I have not had a screw cap since my days of drinking Riunite Lambrusco. And that as a different type screw cap I think.

Michael, I'm somewhat of a newbie here. I keep thinking that I'm about ready to stop calling myself a "newbie," but then happen upon conversations like this that prove I still have a __long__ way to go. But in the 5-10 percent of the wine with "obvious TCA/other cork taint problems," do these occur on individual bottles only, or could you point to a particular wine/vintage that has such obvious problem? I would be curious to "taste" what everybody is talking about and see if I am at all sensative to it.

I'd especially be interested in a Bordeaux, since I am currently in the process of familiarizing myself with them (I've only been doing this since mid-July, but have collected over 60 bottles, mostly from the 80's, many

Thanks in advance, \/

They occur completely at random. Sometimes winegrowers admit of having had a particularly bad batch (as they sometimes are lucky and have near to zero problems), but it can strike anybody. Just two stories:

- As you like Bordeaux (as I do), here is my collection of corked

- If you find mentioning quite often 1985, this is true, since it's the birth year of my son (from first marriage). Back in 1986 I bought 6 bottles of Grüner Veltliner from FX Pichler, a world class grower here in Austria, to lay them down. A year or two later I asked a friend of mine, sommelier in a top restaurant, how FX Pichler's 1985s were doing. "A catastrophy. Over 50% cork taint." This was confirmed by the grower who ranted about the cork problems of his wines.

I asked whether I could come by to eventually change the corks? "Sure, no problem." It took me a few years, and the bin of this wine was down to 9 bottles, kept especially for me. With my 6 added, that made 15 bottles, of which only 7 showed equally fine, while 8 showed different grades of taint. In fact, that was the absolute minimum, because we needed the 7th bottle to top up what was my half dozen I took home again.

M.