how do you guys feel about wine that comes with screw top bottles?

vash · vash's Garage

at home, i kinda like it. easy to open, easy to seal up for a quick revisit later. at a restaurant, i like the ceremony of the wait staff popping a cork...what about you guys?

drinking a decent wine from australia right now..

daepp · 11-03-2009, 05:28 PM

My wife and I drove to Napa in about 1989. We lucked out and actually met Mr. Mondavi as he joined our little tour of the winery. When the topic of corks came up, the tour guide explained everything traditional about corks. Only when she was done did Mondavi chime in with the following - "Every bottle of wine I sell would be screw top if only the public would buy it!" It was his opinion some 20 years ago that the screw top was better in almost all cases.

MRM · 11-03-2009, 05:31 PM

It doesn't matter what I think of screw top wine bottles. Regardless of my opinion it is superior to corked wine in every way except it seems funny to the general public because it's new.

dhoward · dhoward's Garage

Not new. it's been available for years. It just was representative of a lower-quality product.

red-beard · red-beard's Garage

I'm seeing more and more fine wine with screw caps

dzls rok · dzls rok's Garage

more and more wineries are using stelvin or screw caps, even for premium wines. they create a better seal and don't get cork rot. they just dont have the romance of corking a bottle of wine.

vash · vash's Garage

i'm all over it anyways! personally, i would love to see some great wine in boxes. make it easier to drink a glass a day. crack a bottle open, and it is a commitment. especially when alone.

dzls rok · dzls rok's Garage

actually, thats changing too. they are putting some better wines in boxes...but not premuim wines though.

red-beard · red-beard's Garage

Some of the early Premium Australian wines were available in a box. I sampled a bit in the early 80's, from one of our sales guys who lived in Australia. When he would come to NY for the sales meetings, he'd bring a few boxes.

legion · 11-03-2009, 05:52 PM

I prefer my wine in boxes...

HardDrive · 11-03-2009, 06:02 PM

I greatly prefer screw tops. Much better wines have started to use them as well.

bell · bell's Garage

the wife and i have been using the "Houdini Lever Wine Preserver" for 2 years....the thing is freaking awesome, vacuums out the air and seals it.......absolutely works

oh....if it tastes good, i drink it, box/screwcap/cork

island911 · 11-03-2009, 06:43 PM

It's crrrrap, if it's not from a bladder-bagged box. gti

Don Plumley · Don Plumley's Garage

Corked wines used to be a huge problem. Cork producers ignored the warning signs, particularly those raised in New Zealand or Aus. So the Kiwis and Aussies single-handedly brought screwcaps into finer wines. For a vintner, the book, "To cork or not to cork" reads like a horror novel.

For wines that will be consumed shortly after bottling (e.g. Whites, especially Sauv Blanc from NZ, etc.), a stelvin/screw cap is a great closure. I have no qualms buying any wine with a screwcap.

There is still considerable debate over the slow ingress of oxygen through a cork that aids in the aging of wine. One of the big challenges of making wine that will go into a screwcap bottle is preventing something called Reduction, where the wine ends up with sulphur-like/burnt rubber odors. For you chemists out there, it's balancing the Redox equation.

The screwcap does remove some of the romance of cutting the foil and extracting the cork. But that romance is for naught if the wine is corked. While a few ultra luxury brands have put screwcaps on their bottles, given the dramatic improvement in cork quality and general high-end consumer perception, natural cork will always be the dominant closure.

Dottore · 11-03-2009, 07:02 PM

Love screw tops. Much prefer them to cork. Haven't gained market acceptance everywhere yet, but certainly will in the next few years. Cork will go the way of the Dodo bird.

Dottore · 11-03-2009, 07:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Don Plumley

The screwcap does remove some of the romance of cutting the foil and extracting the cork. But that romance is for naught if the wine is corked. While a few ultra luxury brands have put screwcaps on their bottles, given the dramatic improvement in cork quality and general high-end consumer perception, natural cork will always be the dominant closure.

I disagree entirely. The so-called "romance of cutting the foil and extracting the cork" is a thing of then past. If it isn't yet—it soon will be.

And how painful is it to watch your average waitress massacre a cork in front of your eyes??

In Switzerland virtually all domestic wines have been screw-top for years. In America there's a bit of a stigma attached to screw-top because these used to be the really crappy fortified wines (Old Sailor etc). But that stigma will disappear quickly as more and more decent wines get rid of the cork.

I would bet that in 5 or 7 years you will be hard-pressed to find a bottle of wine with a cork in it.

boxster03 · 07:21 PM

I really like it for Sauvignon blancs but have not yet accepted it for Chardonnays or reds. Time will tell.

imcarthur · imcarthur's Garage

I don't think I'll be laying any screw-capped wines down in my cellar. If I'm going to keep a wine for 5 years or more, I want a cork. As Don said & from what I have read to date, the jury is still out on screw-caps & long aging. I don't think we will see screw-capped Moutons or Gajas et al for a while yet. I rather like the cork ritual anyway.

Ian

Don Plumley · Don Plumley's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dottore

I would bet that in 5 or 7 years you will be hard-pressed to find a bottle of wine with a cork in it.

I'll take that bet. In this year's wine closure survey, over 80% of respondents use natural cork. If you own a bottling line you have to convert to a stelvin spinner and there are other packaging implications. Winemaking is a tradition-based business and change comes slow. The initial surge of interest (early adopters) has swung back a bit with the advent of reduction issues. There's even someone making a screwcap closure with metered/known oxygen ingress.

Will there be a lot more screwcap? Yes, absolutely. Especially in Whites. Will you be "hard-press to find a bottle of wine with a cork in it." Absolutely not.

red-beard · red-beard's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Don Plumley

Corked wines used to be a huge problem. Cork producers ignored the warning signs, particularly those raised in New Zealand or Aus. So the Kiwis and Aussies single-handedly brought screwcaps into finer wines. For a vintner, the book, "To cork or not to cork" reads like a horror novel.

For wines that will be consumed shortly after bottling (e.g. Whites, especially Sauv Blanc from NZ, etc.), a stelvin/screw cap is a great closure. I have no qualms buying any wine with a screwcap.

There is still considerable debate over the slow ingress of oxygen through a cork that aids in the aging of wine. One of the big challenges of making wine that will go into a screwcap bottle is preventing something called Reduction, where the wine ends up with sulphur-like/burnt rubber odors. For you chemists out there, it's balancing the Redox equation.

The screwcap does remove some of the romance of cutting the foil and extracting the cork. But that romance is for naught if the wine is corked. While a few ultra luxury brands have put screwcaps on their bottles, given the dramatic improvement in cork quality and general high-end consumer perception, natural cork will always be the dominant closure.

Yep, it really sucks when you have a $400 bottle (magnum) that is 15 years old, and it is corked! The vineyard replaced the bottle, since I had owned it for only a few months.