Home winemakers: Any of you switching to screwcaps?

Just wondering if any of my fellow home winemakers here have switched, or are thinking of switching to screwcapped bottles. Frankly, I am ... The cheap, tough natural corks available at most winemaking supply shops have never impressed me. I keep looking for the kind of long, solid, quality corks that many a good estate-produced bottle of red tends to contain, yet all they have at the supply shops are these really dry, tough corks that tend to disintegrate - either upon insertion into the bottle (!) or sometimes on removal. Also, I have experienced a disturbingly high amount of corked bottles of my precious homemade wines; you can't "take back" a homemade wine like you can a store-bought one, so screwcaps are looking ever more attractive.

Now, the only question is: do the supply shops actually sell new caps that fit the thread of the commercial screw-topped bottles? That I don't yet know.

Not even thinking about it at this time. I have had some cork issues in the past but not enough so far to justify the transition.

A few years ago I bought 1,000 1 3/4 in #9 corks from an out-of-town winemaking supply and have used about 75% them. I believe I've had 4 bottles with cork taint out of over 500 or so opened. For one thing, all the empty bottles that I have require corks. I have tried synthetic and may use them again on some wines. My local winemaking supply store is now offering Zorks, which can be inserted into standard bottles using only a crown capper. I don't think I would consider using standard screwcaps. However, in a thread on a home winemaking website, someone posted about Stelvin screwcaps and that a device for installing them costs $250, but I don't have any of the bottles.

Like Brian, I’m not even thinking about it. Paul what are you actual going to do buy screw caps with threads already formed in them and screw them on by hand? I haven’t seen the installation device Howie mentioned, but I have seen screw cap machines that meet the manufacture’s specifications for installation and they run about 6 to 7 grand. Even if you can get commercial screw cap bottles from a bar or restaurant lets say are you sure the threads will be a good match to seal the bottle “nicely”. Unless of course you plan to drink your wine quickly this might not be a problem. Short term it might be alright but I would worry about “long term”.

In the past I did buy corks by the bulk but I found “storage” a problem. Basically once the bag was open I placed the corks in a bucket within a bucket set-up. The inside bucket had holes drilled in the bottom of the bucket the outside bucket I always kept a “fresh” solution of k-meta. Now I just buy the corks as I need them and my local home winemaker supply store takes real good care of me. BTW Howie how co you store your corks?

Salute

Paul what are you actual going to do buy screw caps with threads already formed in them and screw them on by hand?

Victor,

Yep, that's pretty much the idea I had: screw 'em on by hand, and then perhaps lay a thin sticker with vintage or other info computer-printed on it, across the screwcap - sort of like a "certification sticker" if you will. Though the main issue is just how unbelievably easier this would make bottling compared to using those nasty corks, which, even when pre-soaked, are still a pain to get into the bottles due to their toughness. Actually - they probably expand when wetted, so they could be inserted dry; but they still tend to break apart inside my corker.

...BTW Howie how do you store your corks? Salute

The corks I bought came in 10 sealed bags of 100 (St. Pats of Texas). When I open a bag I put the ones I don't use in a ziplock bag. I don't soak or sterilize them in any way as they are treated with K-meta at packaging. I insert them dry.

No plans to go to screw caps here, either. At this point, it just doesn't seem practical to us. We have a corker, so putting natural corks in bottles is not difficult. We've had some less-than-stellar experiences with artificial corks, so we're going with natural ones. Overall, they seem to work the best for us.

We store them in the baggies we buy them in and give them a short soak in bisulfite before bottling.

[David M. Bueker]

It's sometimes hard for the professionals to get the right bottles for screwcaps, so it's unlikely many home wine makers are switching.

Actually, "standard" screwcap bottles and caps are relatively easy to obtain and I believe many home wine makers use them, but they are not Stelvin. I'm not sure why Stelvins are better.
http://www.ebottles.com/showbottles.asp?familyid=1149

The bulk bags I bought were 1000 corks per bag. In the bucket in the bucket set-up the corks did not make contact with the k-meta solution. Today I have my local wine making supply store just bag the bulk bags into smaller bags of 100.

Salute

Actually, "standard" screwcap bottles and caps are relatively easy to obtain and I believe many home wine makers use them, but they are not Stelvin. I'm not sure why Stelvins are better.
http://www.ebottles.com/showbottles.asp?familyid=1149

I might be wrong, but it was my understanding that the commercial screwcaps - Stelvin-type - you see on wine bottles are slipped over the neck of the bottle, held down and then "rolled" into place; in other words there's no 'thread-shape' on the 'capsule' as supplied - it gets there only from the bottle it covers. This means that the cap should be a perfect fit for the particular bottle.
Certainly sounds hard to replicate on a small-scale basis...
cheers,
Graeme

You are correct. The "standard" screwcap I'm referring to is how cheap wine was bottled for many years, long before "Stelvins" were developed. These are the reason Stelvins were hard to market and have only recently been accepted.

I'm finally at the point where the labels have been scraped off of just enough recycled bottles to take care of the year's production. It would be a shame to have to replace 200+ perfectly fine bottles with screwtops. I'm not very sensitive to TCA, so corks haven't been a problem.