Jump to content

Wine Corks-- A Nostalgic Past...


Recommended Posts

Several years ago my mom began collecting wine corks. She told me that the trees take longer to produce than the rate in which they get cut for corks by wineries. I shrugged it off. In the last month, Concha Y Toro switched to screw-tops. I almost couldn't buy my favorite Carmenere. Surely you have all popped the Synthetic cork.

 

times are changing, and I'm sad. Screw Tops!!!

Link to post
Share on other sites

synthetic, screw tops, cork; everything i have heard suggests there is no difference as far as the quality of the wine. it's all a matter of what our nostalgia will allow us to accept.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm not well up on wines but I have this perhaps mistaken image that screwtops are cheaper and not as good. I do quite

like wine though, though I have had some reds that were just awful.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Screw tops stops the wines from maturing or getting to their best. It takes years od atmosphere permeation through the cork to do some maturing.

 

You will NEVER find a Grand Cru from France using anything other than corks.

Link to post
Share on other sites

i thought things in the wine industry were divided along the corks/synthetics/screw tops issue.

screw tops seem to be getting mor epopular. are corks really better or do people just cling to them out of some nostalgic longing?

i've been served screw top wines in restaurants before, and the waiter will still do the whole "would you like to try the wine" thing. this seems kind of pointless as the wine couldn't be corked.

Link to post
Share on other sites

well, i've got a mate who's a winemaker in the barossa valley. the last time he emailed me they were sampling the 06 grange, so i guess he knows what he's on about.

here's his spiel:

 

Science and logic are on our side here. Screwcaps are MUCH better, there is no question here, there is plenty of empirical evidence and again it’s just logical:

No cork taint (TriChloroAnisole et al), no cork woodyness characters, no random bottle development (the wine is the same bottle to bottle), no oxidation (brown dead tasting wine), screw-cappped wine is invariably fresher, corks do not help aging (aging and oxidation are independent processes, wine still ages under screwcap, you don’t need oxygen to age wine).

A wine under screwcap (unless it is heat affected) reaches the consumer in the way the winemaker intended it, cork has no such guarantee – all manner of things can go wrong with cork, they are a natural product with the inherent variability that comes with that. I could keep going… Perhaps the only things working against it are aesthetics (but it’s the wine quality that really matters), and residual Sulphide characters like H2S – but this blows off in minutes after decanting or sitting in the glass.

Link to post
Share on other sites

that woodyness character comes from the barrel in which it ages as well. I quite like oak-flavored reds. In fact, a woody flavor is my first pre-req to a good red. I don't know how much corks contribute to that. I can't imagine it being any more than the giant oak barrel.

 

I also admit that screw tops are easier. But I still prefer a cork. I have no idea why.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Especially when not aged, I'd always choose a new world wine over a French wine. They're simply not made to be drunk young, and there's an awful lot of low-quality stuff floating around. Not too keen on South African either, especially their awful Chenin Blancs.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Well Beaujolais Nouveau is never going to get any better... What is with the Japanese obsession with this wine? I swear the Japanese market keeps it in business!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Perhaps because it does taste like grape juice...

 

It just seems to be really really popular - must be big money behind it.

Link to post
Share on other sites

wine that tastes like grape juice and at 13% alc gets you pissed. What can go wrong? I've seen some restaurants that sell it like its Beaujolais Village, that can go really wrong.

Link to post
Share on other sites
×
×
  • Create New...