Bottle Closure Debate
The number of wine lovers that take-up passionate positions in the debate about wine bottle closures fascinates me. Come on – it’s just a way to keep wine from spilling all over in your car on your way home from the store. Or is it?
Of course cork has been used for centuries but has been getting lambasted by the press of late because of the potentially high failure rate. Australia jumped on the screw cap alternative some time ago (although the screw cap was invented in France in 1959; Australians “jumped on it” in 1970 but it did not really arrive on anyone’s radar in the US until 2000 or later) and within the past several years we have seen synthetic closures as well. So the question being debated is this: should wineries abandon cork and convert to alternative closures? To answer this I think we need to look at the science of the issue first, and then factor in personal preference.
Unscientifically (by observation), most casual wine drinkers don’t care one way or the other. People with average or above average wine knowledge do indeed have an opinion but there doesn’t seem to be a consensus about the subject. Wine collectors and connoisseurs have very definite opinions, even to the extent of considering that uncorking a bottle is part of the tradition of wine. Let’s get back to science.
Great wines may be made, but generally are not great until they develop over time, which requires being laid down (put to rest in a cellar for a period of time). In age-worthy wines, and certainly not all wines are, the process of aging is what develops complexity in a wine’s bouquet (nose) and flavors. Having a cork closure allows minute quantities of oxygen to penetrate the bottle and thus react with the chemical properties of the wine over an extended period of time. This process is not possible with a screw cap because oxygen cannot penetrate the metal closure.
When wine is shipped, stored, sold, stored again, and ultimately drunk (HA! I said drunk!), any big swings in temperature will be revealed by the cork – it will either be protruding or recessed into the top of the neck, due to the expansion and contraction principles of physics. This is a sure sign that the wine has been improperly handled or stored somewhere along the line. Screw caps? No clues are available.
For me, and because I age Bordeaux and other excellent wines over a period of years so that complexity develops, cork is my preferred closure although every now and then, I end up with a corked bottle. I buy my wine from reputable wine merchants that stand behind their bottles and if there is a problem with cork taint, I have never dealt with a merchant that wouldn’t refund my money. Cork is for me and surprisingly I find that I too, am passionate about the subject.
Please let me know your thoughts - weigh in!
Of course cork has been used for centuries but has been getting lambasted by the press of late because of the potentially high failure rate. Australia jumped on the screw cap alternative some time ago (although the screw cap was invented in France in 1959; Australians “jumped on it” in 1970 but it did not really arrive on anyone’s radar in the US until 2000 or later) and within the past several years we have seen synthetic closures as well. So the question being debated is this: should wineries abandon cork and convert to alternative closures? To answer this I think we need to look at the science of the issue first, and then factor in personal preference.
Unscientifically (by observation), most casual wine drinkers don’t care one way or the other. People with average or above average wine knowledge do indeed have an opinion but there doesn’t seem to be a consensus about the subject. Wine collectors and connoisseurs have very definite opinions, even to the extent of considering that uncorking a bottle is part of the tradition of wine. Let’s get back to science.
In the food industry, a term known as “flavor scalping” exists as a result of aromatic components being absorbed by packaging. Synthetic closures, at least what is available today, absorb a considerable amount of wine aromas compared to screw caps (none) and cork (a little). So for wines that are going to be consumed young, screw caps may be fine but I personally have an issue even with this!
When wine is shipped, stored, sold, stored again, and ultimately drunk (HA! I said drunk!), any big swings in temperature will be revealed by the cork – it will either be protruding or recessed into the top of the neck, due to the expansion and contraction principles of physics. This is a sure sign that the wine has been improperly handled or stored somewhere along the line. Screw caps? No clues are available.
For me, and because I age Bordeaux and other excellent wines over a period of years so that complexity develops, cork is my preferred closure although every now and then, I end up with a corked bottle. I buy my wine from reputable wine merchants that stand behind their bottles and if there is a problem with cork taint, I have never dealt with a merchant that wouldn’t refund my money. Cork is for me and surprisingly I find that I too, am passionate about the subject.
Please let me know your thoughts - weigh in!
I agree with you on this subject, though i don't yet buy wine to lay down, i think it is important to have a cork rather than snythetic or screw top. There is a certain nostalgia about opening a bottle of wine (especially one that you pay a bit of money for!} and inspecting the cork, smelling it, compairing the color to the wine in the glass, and the learning process that goes along with it.
I've seen some screw top bottle's that go for over 30 dollars and it concerns me that it is very young and won't get better with age, so if it was just okay in 2006 it will be just okay in 2008. i understand that most of those bottles are meant to be drunk soon, but how soon is soon? do they go bad after 3 or 4 years?
I also tend to get dissapointed with synthetic corks because they mostly smell like rubber and remind me of something that riot police put in their shotguns. I don't want that in my wine.
i guess I'm just old school, without the old of course.
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Obviously, the cork is the most time-tested closure, which surely brings a lot of value.
I am sure we will know more about screw tops over time assuming they proliferate (unless they are limited to short-lived or “bad” wines).
Whether the cork’s ability to transfer minute quantities of oxygen over time in aged wine is good or not, must be undetermined since there is not a reasonable control group or methodology to deeply study this. Especially since there has not been a rich record of age-worthy wines with closures that allowed NO oxygen with no other undesirable characteristics (like lacing the wine with trace amounts of aluminum, or fuel oil or whatever).
I suppose it would help to blind test a bottle of 1982 Margaux with a cork closure and the same wine with a screw cap. We are only covering the closure – there must be so much more to winemaking that is still virgin ground. For all we know, the best wines might come from vessels made from clay that is only found on mars. I mean, who would have guessed, coffee beans excreted in cat feces would taste the best???
Er . . . but I guess that would not be possible.
Overall, I give the cork a thumbs up and agree the cork wins on nostalgia and its ability to reveal a bottle’s history / provenance.
Phil
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Phil - thanks for your thoughtful response. I just wanted to followup with a couple of comments. First I think that you are right in that screwcaps are here to fulfill the closure needs of short-lived wines (and probably bad wines as well). Historically Australia was a very early adopter of this "technology" which was propelled forward by the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) with extensive screwcap trials having been conducted since the 1970's. This is probably why so many Aussie wines come equipped with such hardware these days.
However the '70's Australian interest in screwcaps kind of pales in comparison to the actual introduction of screwcaps, which was created by a French company, La Bouchage Mécanique in 1959! An Australian company subsequently acquired the manufacturing rights to the screwcap closure in 1970. Indeed there has been extensive resources and huge money spent on 'hard-science research' about wine closures.
Just imagine that in the 2005 Bordeaux vintage alone, nearly one billion bottle closures were needed, produced and utilized (nearly all of which were cork of course). So when you calculate the Bordeaux output of wine and add to it all of the other wine regions of the world, the stakes for using an efficient closure are very high; it makes sense that wine producers at all levels would have an interest in the outcome of such research. The conclusion so far? There is no such thing as a perfect closure.
More than just nostalgia, to me cork is the best choice possible based on the type of wines I buy and enjoy. It's kind of like tolerating our judicial system when we know criminals walk away - we know it's not right and it's not perfect but it is better than any other alternative (unless you're the one that happens to get mugged or shot in the head - then maybe not so much). And I really like your idea about drinking '82 Margaux regardless of any ideology about bottle closures!
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