Screw Top Bottles of Wine

Gary Childress · 2007-03-31T22:16:34+00:00

I notice that there are some allegedly good quality screw top bottledwines out there as well. Are there advantages/disadvantages to screwtops? Why do some brands use screw tops instead of the traditionalcorks?Just curious.Thanks.

J

JimC 19 years ago

I have no basis for questioning what's being said about screwcaps, and I've tasted some good wines in screwcapped bottles, but over the years I have heard that corks, being somewhat porous, permit the bottle to "breathe" slightly during changes in pressure and temperature and thereby admit some oxygen that helps the aging process. I'm concerned only about reds that benefit from some aging in the bottle. (Incidentally, what's a "Selvin" screwtop, and does it have particular features others don't?)

It seems that most of the comments regarding screwcaps are based more or less on individual tastings of individual bottles rather than on systematic, comparative blind tastings. They seem to be saying that, because there are some good wines in screwcap bottles, everyone should get over their fuddy-duddy, outdated preferences for corked bottles. -

But I'm not sure this really settles the issue. Has anyone, or have any of the wine publications, performed any comparative tastings, particularly of Cabs or Bordeaux needing bottle aging, in screwcapped and corked bottles? I suppose that such a comparison should include tastings in which wine stored in corked bottles was compared with the same wine, from the same vintage, stored in bottles with screwcaps, both aged several years. (I'm aware that there are problems with cork spoilage in a percentage of bottles. I'm thinking that this might be resolved with some of the artificial cork materials.)

Jim

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J

Jose 19 years ago

bottles, everyone should get over their fuddy-duddy, outdated preferences for corked bottles. -

There's something to that. For a long time, the problem with screwcaps was the wine that was bottled under them. Ditto wine in a box.

Jose

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S

Salil 19 years ago

Not sure about the issue with reds, although I have recently opened a few whites under screwcap that were starting to develop aged characteristics quite beautifully. One was a Semillon (04 Torbreck Woodcutter's White, and starting to show the typical toast/nutty flavours), the other was a Riesling (04 Stoneleigh from NZ, showing a fair bit of petrol and smoke in addition to a lot of fruit) - so I'm not too concerned now about how wines will develop with age, given that I'm seeing a few under screwcap starting to evolve very nicely.

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DaleW 19 years ago

Probably the most extensive (and extended) reported tests are from Australia and New Zealand. Penfolds in particular has done many years of aging reds under screwcap. A couple years ago they announced they were happy enough to start offering various Bin wines (premium/ ultrapremium, intended to age for many years, though I'm not sure re the Grange yet) under screwcap,or in some cases a choice of natural cork or screwcap

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There is a claim by (I believe) Amorin that they can get the incidence of detectable TCA well under 1%. As the cork industry denied there was evn a problem till recently (when some top wineries started switching to screwcaps or glass closures) I will not blindly have faith in what they say, but will hope that tests back them up.

I'm not wedded to any particular method of closure. But the accepted

3-5% rate of TCA infection (about what I experience) means that I have a couple thousand dollars of undrinkable wine in my cellar. Not a fun thought.

Those that say they have under 2% corked rate are almost certainly just very TCA insensitive. But even if they don't get the corked smell, the fruit scalping effect remains.

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Screw Top Bottles of Wine

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