2007 ~ No. 8    

Vive le Screw Cap!

Last year, I was a panelist at an industry event comparing the same wine bottled with a screw cap and with a cork. To me, the tasting was a revelation, with the under-screw cap wines having a slight edge over their traditionally sealed counterparts. They consistently came across as fresher, fruiter and livelier - and could be sold without risk of cork taint, virtually eliminating the chance that a customer could get a bad bottle.

In other words, I was sold on the screw cap closure for everyday bottles of wine.

It was a shock, then, at a recent tasting of New Zealand wines, all with screw tops, that nothing stood out. Some wines even were disappointing: one was a touch metallic, another slightly stewey and cooked. Granted, these were slightly older wines (2004s and 2005s), but still…

One taster in the group, Cynthia Goddeau, made faces and lamented the Kiwi’s love for screw tops (some 90% of New Zealand wines have this closure), becoming more vocal with each bottle.

Although I remain a strong proponent of the screwcap, my faith was shaken. As a result, I was curious to get Cynthia’s perspective. She has a good palate and strong opinions. In the next article, Cynthia describes why she’s still a fan of the humble, long-serving cork – and comes to a very fair conclusion.

In Praise of the Cork

As we go about our busy, day to day lives with the bombardment of how to do this and when to do that, it’s no wonder that the simple enjoyment of drinking wine would eventually become a part of that scenario. To partake in the mystery of tasting wine is a wonder in itself; to understand what, where and how is another story.

Take for instance the ongoing debate over cork versus screw cap. I’m sure ten years from now we will have a clearer picture as to which one is best, but for now the answer is cork. It allows the wine to breathe while it ages, producing a more complex wine with secondary flavors. Isn’t that why we drink wine, for the flavor?

And then there’s the tradition and romance of popping the cork, which is also important but not as important as raising your glass to your nose and actually smelling and tasting the wine at its full potential, not masked by youth and restrained flavors.

We just don’t have enough evidence on aging wine with screw caps, so for now it is used on younger wines. To know whether a tightly sealed cap affects the taste of the wine is debatable: is there leakage or is a taint being detected?

Of course to drink and learn what it is you like most about the wine you have chosen takes practice, especially when you might have a bottle affected by TCA, or Trichloroanisol 2,4,6, which happens during the cork sterilization process and the main reason why we have the screw caps today.

This contamination produces a moldy, wet cardboard smell and taste to the wine, which should be returned to your retailer for an exchange. The cork industry is working on better measures to ensure proper cork production and there is less TCA being detected as a result.

Why not try a bottle of the same style of wine from the same year - one with cork and one with a screw cap - or have a blind tasting of the two wines and try to figure out which one has the screw cap or cork. It’s a fun exercise…and after that you can move on to which country is it from?

Whether it is a clean, fresh young white wine from New Zealand (screw cap) or a rich, complex aged wine from Bordeaux (cork), you will begin to learn that each has a purpose and only you are the true expert of you own taste.

Cheers!

Cynthia Goddeau
Sommelier
Del Posto Restaurant

Want to Know More?

George M. Taber, who wrote the 2005 book Judgment of Paris, has a new work coming out called To Cork Or Not To Cork: Tradition, Romance, Science and the Battle for the Wine Bottle.

It explores the history of the cork as well as the pros and cons of the various ways to close a wine bottle, including cork, synthetics and screw caps. Look for it in the fall.

Gone to the Dogs