Keith's Wine Blog - Put a Cork in it!

Issue Date: 2010-01-22

I don't know about you, but I can't get used to screw-caps in wine bottles.
At the winery, we still use mostly corks. People who visit us ask why we
haven't changed to some other closure. I really can't come up with a
definitive answer. As a winemaker I should be more innovative. They say
screw-tops keep the wine fresher. Maybe I am just old-fashioned, but to
me there's no sound in the world so evocative of good times and pleasure
than the "pop" of a cork being pulled from a bottle of wine.
Wineries started experimenting with alternative closures about twenty
years ago. They found that too many wines were tasting "corked," a
mildewy taste somewhere between wet dog and smouldering newspaper.
It happens when the wine comes in contact with a cork infected with a
horrible little compound called 2, 4, 6 trichloroanisole, or TCA. The
presence of TCA is so offensive to human taste buds that we can detect it
when its presence is at levels of just a few parts per billion, the equivalent
of one teaspoon in several THOUSAND Olympic-sized swimming pools.
You can see why winemakers want to avoid it.
Estimates of the number of "corked" bottles range from 10 per cent down.
Imagine using a product in a manufacturing process that caused one in ten
of your finished goods to go bad! The cork companies read the press too
and they have tightened up quality control. As a result the occurrence of
cork taint is down in independent tests to somewhere around one per cent.
Still, if cork causes one in a hundred bottles to go bad, why not switch?
Because there is as yet nothing that enhances the aging of wine like a cork.
You see, wine is a living thing--in the tank, in the barrel, and in the bottle.
With the slow exposure to air, wine's flavours broaden and ripen. As such,
wine flavours grow in the presence of other living things--the wood of
barrels, the oak of corks. Cork breathes, and allows the very controlled
exchange of air which allows wine to mature in the bottle.
They've tried to emulate this air exchange in other closures. Screw-caps,
for instance, have the plastic liner inside the cap, the part that achieves the
seal with the top of the bottle, that is engineered to allow air to pass through
it, allowing the wine to age. This somewhat makes up for the deficiencies
of this closure, but still no pop.
Lots of wines were not meant to age. In fact the estimate of the amount of
time the average wine-drinker holds onto a bottle before opening it is
about a half-hour. Fresh young whites are best enjoyed today. And many
low-acid, high-alcohol New World red wines are built for enjoying now,
not for aging. Many of these wines should be bottled under screw-cap or
some other alternative closure.
Other myths abound about the inappropriateness of cork. Some say cork
trees are endangered. That's hogwash. Portugal, among other countries, is
covered in plantations of cork oak trees which give off millions of corks
every year and live for decades if not centuries. Others say cork does not
keep the wine as fresh as other closures. But if freshness in wine were so
important, why are ALL the most expensive Bordeaux and Burgundy
wines--and these are the most collectible wines in the world--bottled
under cork?
Other closures have their advantages--mostly cost. A real cork costs
between 30 and 50 cents, while composite corks, made up of a bunch of
little cork pieces glued together, can be half that much. When you're
talking about artificial corks or screw caps, the cost is down to pennies
apiece. Pretty compelling reason for using them. Yet the argument that
they improve the wine is hard to make.
So despite the trend towards alternative closures, I look forward to many
years of rich red wines resting in my basement, and our feast table alive
with the "pop!" of a natural cork being pulled from the bottle. There's no
sound quite like it.
Cheers!
Keith Watt
Keith is owner and winemaker at Morning Bay Vineyard and Estate
Winery on Pender Island, BC.