(From today's 30 Second Wine Advisor)This is your brain on corkDoes 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.