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Wine Advisor: This is your brain on cork

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Robin Garr

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Wine Advisor: This is your brain on cork

by Robin Garr » Fri Jul 28, 2017 12:58 pm

(From today's 30 Second Wine Advisor)

This is your brain on cork

Does wine taste better if it comes from a bottle stopped with a cork or closed with a metal screw cap?

This is not an idle question. Over recent decades, since the screw cap emerged from its former place of shame as the signal of cheap wine served from jugs, the natural cork has begun to suffer some shame of its own. That, um, natural tendency to ruin the wine with a funky taint, for instance, and the growing recognition that you don't really need a special tool to open a wine bottle.

In short, the connection of cork and screw cap on flavor and aging has become the topic of ongoing debate. Does a sound cork add a subtle flavor element of its own that enhances the subtlety and complexity of well-aged wine? The cork industry would say so. Does a sturdy screwcap ensure that the wine stays clean? That's what we hear from the other side. (Disclaimer: I'm never unhappy when I find a screw cap on my wine, regardless of its price tag.)

Does natural cork allow just the right amount of air to penetrate the cork of a cellared bottle lying on its side at a constant 55C to ensure proper evolution? That's the old conventional wisdom. Do screw caps create a condition that's too anaerobic - sheltered from oxygen - to foster the development that comes with cellar time? Who knows? And by the way, is that plastic that lines the metal cap? Hmm.

And so the debate goes. Until today! I was first intrigued, then amused, at an article this morning in Phys.org, a science, research and technology news aggregator. "Scientists to settle dispute over taste of wine in bottles with corks versus screw caps," it read, promising that this burning issue is soon to be resolved.

Or is it?

Researchers from Oxford University, the article says, "aim to settle the dispute over whether wine tastes better when stored in bottles with corks or screw caps—and they are not simply taking the word of tasters. They are going to study wine drinkers' brains while they sip."

The event, Neuroenological Tasting—The Grand Cork Experiment, is scheduled for today and tomorrow in London't SoHo district. Sorry, British friends, it appears to be all sold out.

Since taste is purely subjective, writer Bob Yirka asks, how can preferences be subjected to scientific analysis? The answer, he says, lies with science. "Rather than just asking people which they prefer, the researchers plan to put sensors on the heads of taste testers while they sip. The sensors will monitor brain pleasure responses and translate them into numbers that can be used for comparison purposes."

Researchers will also monitor responses to other factors that might influence brain activity during the wine experience: Does hearing the cork pop matter? Pulling a cork or unscrewing a metal cap? Swirling and sniffing? "The researchers plan to find out."

I'm sure the results will be widely disseminated. After all, the Oxford researchers are being assisted by Bompas & Parr, a British firm that "creates fine English jellies and curates spectacular culinary events."

Better still, the project is "in collaboration with the Portuguese Cork Association," so there's that. We'll keep you posted.
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Re: Wine Advisor: This is your brain on cork

by Patchen Markell » Fri Jul 28, 2017 3:17 pm

I don't keep up with all the latest advances, but I'm pretty sure you can't monitor brain activity in specific areas like "pleasure centers" by sticking sensors on people's heads at a wine tasting event (or anywhere else), and the press release for the event doesn't actually mention any such thing. Neuroimaging requires holding still in a fMRI machine, which I doubt they are going to wheel in to this event. Since the Oxford "Crossmodal Research Lab" specializes in studying the interactions among different senses in perception (taste, smell, vision, touch) my guess is that they're going to see how people's reported responses to the same wines vary when it's presented to them from a cork-closed versus a screw capped bottle (for example).

Of course, as we all know, the "M" in fMRI is "magnetic," so if they *do* bring in such a machine for this event it will have the added advantage of instantly maturing the 2016 Tesco plonk into '71 La Tâche. :-)
cheers, Patchen
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Re: Wine Advisor: This is your brain on cork

by Robin Garr » Fri Jul 28, 2017 4:19 pm

Patchen Markell wrote:Of course, as we all know, the "M" in fMRI is "magnetic," so if they *do* bring in such a machine for this event it will have the added advantage of instantly maturing the 2016 Tesco plonk into '71 La Tâche. :-)

:lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: Wine Advisor: This is your brain on cork

by Victorwine » Sun Aug 13, 2017 4:01 pm

Does natural cork allow just the right amount of air to penetrate a cellared bottle of wine lying on its side at a constant 55 degree temperature ensure proper evolution? This is traditional common wisdom.
I would consider this a little more than traditional common wisdom. Man has been observing this ever since the modern binning bottle and natural cork hooked up.
Natural corks have a varied oxygen transfer rate so maybe not only do they allow the correct amount of air the timing of the air is appropriate.
Wine bottles aging in cellars are not idly laying their. The bottle is basically acting like a two way pump. Sometimes drawing in other times drawing out. This might not be very noticeable but under airlocks this is very easily noticed. Sometimes the liquid in the airlock is level, other times it is swing in or out. A lot of this has to do with temperature and expansion and compression of the wine.

Salute
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David M. Bueker

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Re: Wine Advisor: This is your brain on cork

by David M. Bueker » Sun Aug 13, 2017 6:10 pm

Stupid study. Flawed closure.
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Re: Wine Advisor: This is your brain on cork

by Robin Garr » Sun Aug 13, 2017 9:21 pm

David M. Bueker wrote:Stupid study. Flawed closure.

the project is "in collaboration with the Portuguese Cork Association"... :twisted:
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Re: Wine Advisor: This is your brain on cork

by David M. Bueker » Sun Aug 13, 2017 10:06 pm

OK. Corrupted study. Flawed closure.
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Tim York

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Re: Wine Advisor: This is your brain on cork

by Tim York » Mon Aug 14, 2017 5:06 am

Why do we need this sort of (pseudo?) scientific study? I would be convinced that wine ages as well under screwcap as under the best corks if I were to drink a 30/40 year old screwcap closed claret or Burgundy GC which equalled my best memories of similar bottles under cork. Failing that, the equivalent experience of a trusted person such as Michael Broadbent, Jancis Robinson, Michel Bettane, Burghound and several on this and other wine lover sites would be very persuasive.

The track record of screwcap is getting longer and, by now, there must be some 20+ year old reds as well as whites under that closure. I haven't read any reports of such wines performing disappointingly and quality is certainly more consistent than under cork.
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Peter May

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Re: Wine Advisor: This is your brain on cork

by Peter May » Mon Aug 14, 2017 6:22 am

Robin Garr wrote:(From today's 30 Second Wine Advisor)

Does a sound cork add a subtle flavor element of its own that enhances the subtlety and complexity of well-aged wine?



Does a sound cork add a subtle flavor element of its own

undoubtedly

that enhances the subtlety and complexity of well-aged wine?

Matter of taste I suppose, I think it adds a dirty taste.

To test it for yourself, take a cork from a white or young red wine - because you don't want one stained with red wine or with sediment on it, but a clean cork.

Pour a small glass of water in the evening and place the cork in it - it'll float, that's OK, it doesn't need to be submerged.

Next morning, remove the cork and drink the water.

That taste you get you'll recognise as the one lurking at the back of a wine that's been aging on its side against the cork.

Some tell me that - because the cork is oak, and the wines age in oak barrels - it's a complementary flavour that adds to complexity. I think it detracts. Bring on the screw caps!!
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David M. Bueker

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Re: Wine Advisor: This is your brain on cork

by David M. Bueker » Mon Aug 14, 2017 7:33 am

Tim York wrote:The track record of screwcap is getting longer and, by now, there must be some 20+ year old reds as well as whites under that closure. I haven't read any reports of such wines performing disappointingly and quality is certainly more consistent than under cork.


I am now regularly opening 12-15 year old Rieslings under screw cap from my cellar. So far the results are almost uniformly excellent. There was some reduction from a few (not a majority) producers back when they started with the closure, but even those who struggled back then have the hang of it now.
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