Screw cap watch: Signs of the end times

[Robin Garr]

Picked up a cheap Gazela Vinho Verde today ($5.99) with a 2007 back-label bottling code, and noted that it now comes under a screw cap.

<I>A Portuguese wine!</i>

Frankly, I'm glad to see it. Gazela is a nice cheap summer quaff, but I've found a ridiculously high rate of cork taint. My guess: They can't afford high-quality natural cork if they're going to sell at this price point. The good news: No more fear of TCA stench when I uncork one.

Robin, I always thought of myself as a traditionalist where cork is concerned and in some ways I am: I still have very few disappointments with wines bottled under high-quality solid cork. That said, I am in favour of the screwcap as an ideal closure for everyday table wines. When I reach for a fine Grüner or Sauvignon on that hot summer's day and it's under screwcap, opening the bottle is quick and easy and so far, I haven't had a single dud yet.

Was in bottled in Portugal?

I am seeing increasing numbers of wines shipped in bulk and bottled in either the country of purchase or a third country.

Picked up a cheap Gazela Vinho Verde today ($5.99) with a 2007 back-label bottling code, and noted that it now comes under a screw cap.

<I>A Portuguese wine!</i>

Frankly, I'm glad to see it. Gazela is a nice cheap summer quaff, but I've found a ridiculously high rate of cork taint. My guess: They can't afford high-quality natural cork if they're going to sell at this price point. The good news: No more fear of TCA stench when I uncork one.

Robin, I just bought half a case of the wine. Two bottles came with corks, the rest came with screw caps. All 2006 vintage.

[Robin Garr]

Robin, I just bought half a case of the wine. Two bottles came with corks, the rest came with screw caps. All 2006 vintage.

Interesting data point! I don't believe Gazela is a vintage wine, by the way. There's a year on the back following a cryptic string of numbers, but I assume it's an encoded bottling date. Mine reads 2007.

[Robin Garr]

Was in bottled in Portugal?

I am seeing increasing numbers of wines shipped in bulk and bottled in either the country of purchase or a third country.

Peter, the Gazela is indeed a DO Vinho Verde, bottled in Gaia, Portugal by the giant SOGRAPE firm.

I agree that the procedure you mention is happening more and more as technology makes such gyrations possible. I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing for everyday wines. To cite one sterling example, Patrick Campbell of Laurel Glen in Sonoma is making his Terra Rosa line of Argentine wines that way nowadays, shipping wine in quantity from Mendoza and bottling it in Graton, California. It's a splendid wine.

Robin, I just bought half a case of the wine. Two bottles came with corks, the rest came with screw caps. All 2006 vintage.

Interesting data point! I don't believe Gazela is a vintage wine, by the way. There's a year on the back following a cryptic string of numbers, but I assume it's an encoded bottling date. Mine reads 2007.

Yep, it's a bottling date, not a vintage, and yep, it's bottled in Portugal by SoGrape, the guys that brought us Mateus back when we were young...