WS: Kramer On Closures...

Interesting article by my WS fave, MatKramer, on wine closures.
He cites a Bordeaux study on wine closures that found artificical corks were poorest at keeping out O2, and that screwcaps (presumably Stelvin...but doesn't identify which kind of insert..the non-permeable one or the slightly permeable one) are slightly better than corks at preventing O2 ingress.
What was most interesting about the study was that it didn't make a bit of difference if the btl was lying on its side or standing upright. The headspace was at 100% humidity and sufficient to keep the cork moist and a good seal. Mat then went on to poo-poo the importance of high humidity in a wine cellar for keeping corks moist, that the 100% humidity of the head space was sufficient.
This is heresy...totally contrary to what we've all been told by the wine authorities. Kramer should be silenced for spewing such nonsense.
The one weakness of the study was that it was only carried out over a 24 month period. Hopefully, these Bordeaux guys are continuing that study.
TomHill

Interesting article by my WS fave, MatKramer, on wine closures.
He cites a Bordeaux study on wine closures that found artificical corks were poorest at keeping out O2, and that screwcaps (presumably Stelvin...but doesn't identify which kind of insert..the non-permeable one or the slightly permeable one) are slightly better than corks at preventing O2 ingress.
What was most interesting about the study was that it didn't make a bit of difference if the btl was lying on its side or standing upright. The headspace was at 100% humidity and sufficient to keep the cork moist and a good seal. Mat then went on to poo-poo the importance of high humidity in a wine cellar for keeping corks moist, that the 100% humidity of the head space was sufficient.
This is heresy...totally contrary to what we've all been told by the wine authorities. Kramer should be silenced for spewing such nonsense.
The one weakness of the study was that it was only carried out over a 24 month period. Hopefully, these Bordeaux guys are continuing that study.
TomHill

I've seen a study somewhere that looked at ullage levels as a consequence of humidity. While I agree that the humidity inside the bottle will tend to keep (at least most of) the cork moist, evaporation from the outer portions of the cork does contribute to ullage. I think that most of us have also seen the distressing state of corks in relatively young bottles that have been stored upright in warmer places.

Mark Lipton

[David M. Bueker]

I think that most of us have also seen the distressing state of corks in relatively young bottles that have been stored upright in warmer places.

Mark Lipton

But now you're mixing the two variables.

It must be in the air today, Tom; Eric Asimov has an article on screw tops and hiccups therein in the Times today:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/26/dining/26pour.html

Extract:

It’s not just Mr. Burge and other anti-screw-cap winemakers who are pointing out the issue. Even Randall Grahm, the impresario of Bonny Doon Vineyard in Santa Cruz, Calif., acknowledges this problem.

As you might remember, Mr. Grahm with great fanfare pronounced the cork dead five years ago in a series of events staged around the country. “I would like to thank you for attending this very heartfelt wake for the old stinker,” he announced in 2002, in Bonny Doon’s typically antic mode of marketing its decision to use screw caps exclusively.

Today Mr. Grahm is a little more equivocal. No, the corks have not risen up like some B-movie vampire. The screw caps are still in place. But Mr. Grahm today concedes that using screw caps requires winemakers to be extra careful during winemaking and bottling.

“Screw caps are great — they’re really great — but they’re challenging,” he said. “They shorten the runway. They’re unforgiving.”

The good news, Mr. Grahm says, is that unlike corked wines, problems caused by screw cap reduction are often reversible by giving the wine a little air. “All you have to do is learn how to use a decanter,” he said.

Decanting, actually, can improve a lot of young wines, red or white, regardless of the reduction issue. While the addition of air that comes from pouring wine into a decanter — it can be any kind of glass container, nothing fancy necessary — can help dissipate aromas from reduction, it can also help open up young wines that are reticent with their aromas and flavors.

Unlike cork taint, screw cap reduction is not always noticeable, particularly to casual consumers. But that may be little comfort to winemakers, who have a right to expect that the wine they make is essentially the wine people will drink.

But Mr. Grahm today concedes that using screw caps requires winemakers to be extra careful during winemaking and bottling.

But that may be little comfort to winemakers, who have a right to expect that the wine they make is essentially the wine people will drink.

This kind of chaps me a bit. So winemakers have to be extra careful during winemaking and bottling? Can I have a "D'oh!" here??? I would think they could handle that little aspect. It's called being a good winemaker, for god sake.

And if the winemaker wants people to drink what he/she made, the screwcap closure remains the best possible way (at present) to deliver it.

No one ever said that screwcaps wouldn't have their own particular challenges that winemakers would have to deal with. The guys I've talked to, winemakers in Australia, all recognize the technical problems and feel comfortable with making adjustments to the winemaking and bottling practices to lessen the reductive effect.

This is overblown.

Hoke wrote:
I've talked to, winemakers in Australia; all recognize the technical problems and feel comfortable with making adjustments to the winemaking and bottling practices to lessen the reductive effect.

Would this “adjustment” have something to due with making the “blue bomb” (copper sulfate solution) standard winemaking procedure? Maybe in commercial winemaking (especially anaerobic winemaking) using copper sulfate solution is standard practice. But with all the laws that pertain to labeling wines, I don’t think all consumers, are going to be pleased to find, that their favorite wine is treated with a poisonous solution.

Salute

It must be in the air today, Tom; Eric Asimov has an article on screw tops and hiccups therein in the Times today:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/26/dining/26pour.html

Extract:

It’s not just Mr. Burge and other anti-screw-cap winemakers who are pointing out the issue. Even Randall Grahm, the impresario of Bonny Doon Vineyard in Santa Cruz, Calif., acknowledges this problem.

If "the issue" is reduction, then it's a issue that's been around for much longer than screwcaps - yet the anti screwcap brigade like to forget than little detail.
I drink probably 80 or 90% of wine from screwcaps now - including a great many reds (and not just from NZ), and reduction is less of a problem now, than cork taint is with corks.

[David M. Bueker]

Copper sulfate has been around for a lot longer than screwcaps. If people are afraid of it then they had better give up on all wine.

Just remember that there's poison almost everywhere. Just please don't eat a big handful of copper sulfate.

Bombs were not mentioned, Victor. It was a discussion of winemaking, primarily involving GIGO, and suggesting that winemakers should not always slavishly make wine the same way, even when conditions change: that isn if you can anticipate you might have a reductive problem, you pay attention to how you make the wine to anticipate and avoid such.

Agreed Hoke, the golden rule of winemaking GIGO (garbage in garbage out) - the quality of the harvested fruit will determine the quality of the wine. The quality of the fruit should also dictate how this fruit juice is fermented and what cellar treatment is performed to convert this juice into a particular wine. Unfortunately some winemakers try to impose his/her will on a particular quality level of fruit and try to produce something nature never intended it to be.
Also when it comes to making consistently high quality wines timing and balance is critical. Must have said this statement a hundred times- good winemaking is all about checks and balances.

Salute

some winemakers try to impose his/her will on a particular quality level of fruit and try to produce something nature never intended it to be.

Which could describe the vast bulk of Aussie wine exported to the US and EU, eh?

Must have said this statement a hundred times- good winemaking is all about checks and balances.

Well, we all need to say it a few thousand times more, collectively, because there's a hell of a lot of winemakers that haven't figured that out yet, Victor.