Bordeaux screwcap

http://www.decanter.com/news/106686.html

Check it out.

Ha! Love the comment from the crusty 'Dr' about aluminium in his wine! Some folks really don't think before they rush into print, do they? I should say that if you're regular buyer of Tourelles then you ought to lobby the distributer to make screwcap version available at retail. Tell 'em you won't buy the wine otherwise. What possible justification can there possibly be for prohibiting consumers from buying the wine thus? I thought the consumer was supposed to be king...?
cheers,
Graeme

What is the "new glass stopper" referred to in one of the screw top comments on the Decanter wep page?

Hi Jon,
I assume it is the Vino Lok. It's a glass stopper with an eythylene-vinyl acetate sealing ring. If you did chemistry at school, it looks similar to the glass stoppers on glass bottles, though not as clunky.

Here's a link.

Cheers,
Sue

Thanks for the link, Sue. Coming to your neck of the woods sometime is a life-dream of mine. If I make it, I hope I can look you up.
JP

How do the screwcaps and the glass stopper effect wine aging? Corks breathe the tiniest amount, and that is what allows wine to age. Do they breathe at all? If so, do they breathe less, and add to the length of time before a fine wine is ready? (and if so, mean its drinking range lasts longer?)

How do the screwcaps and the glass stopper effect wine aging? Corks breathe the tiniest amount, and that is what allows wine to age.

That last sentence contains so many possible half-truths I hardly know where to begin. You could search archives here (and other fora) for 50-page threads on this subject. In a nutshell: corks do 'breathe'; in varying amounts - some studies suggest a factor of 100 between the porosity of different corks. This may provide some explanation of the phenomenon of 'bottle variation'. It is neither controllable nor predictable. Oxidation of wine in bottle is not desirable. Some argue that it is the oxygen dissolved in the wine at bottling that causes the ageing, and that no further 'air exchange' is necessary - see ancient wax-coated bottles dredged up from 100-year-old seabed shipwrecks and found to taste like 100-year old wines... I don't believe wine science has conclusively mapped the entire bottle aging process, hence the room for argument.

Do they breathe at all? If so, do they breathe less, and add to the length of time before a fine wine is ready? (and if so, mean its drinking range lasts longer?)

If I recall the AWRI study correctly, screwcaps have a very similar 'transmission rate' to the extreme end of the cork scale. There are screwcaps available with different liners, and it appears possible to engineer these liners to a degree of porosity if required, although I believe few such caps are in present usage.
Penfolds chief winemaker Peter Gago was widely quoted a few years ago as saying that (red) wines age under screwcap like 'wines from a very cold cellar', which is to say along a similar curve to cork sealed bottles, but towards the slow end of the scale (but without the TCA and oxidation flaws of cork sealed bottles).
Plenty of journos have published taste comparisons of the same wines under cork and screwcap over the last five years or so. The results almost always comprehensively favour screwcaps for whites, but results are more mixed for reds, with a number of dead heats, and a few where the screwcap wines have barelky aged at all. Most of these wines are from the last 3-4 years, obviously.
That's the best I can do in a summary. Good luck hunting archives...
cheers,
Graeme

http://www.decanter.com/news/106686.html

Check it out.

Certainly a liberal interpretation of a 'second growth'.

Reminds me of some old propaganda from the former Soviet Union, when they announced that one of their autos (Moskvich, or whatever) came in second in some race. There were only two cars in it.

Can't say why the Decanter piece reminds me of this event, since the two instances are not parallel in any way.

Graeme Gee wrote:

That last sentence contains so many possible half-truths I hardly know where to begin.

Perhaps "ignorance" might have been a gentler way to put it, but I thank you for the education. It appears from what you wrote that there MIGHT be some validity to the aging/breathing claims for red wines:

The results almost always comprehensively favour screwcaps for whites, but results are more mixed for reds, with a number of dead heats, and a few where the screwcap wines have barelky aged at all. Most of these wines are from the last 3-4 years, obviously.

but that the difference is (a) negligible, and (b) if anything, favoring the screw-caps for their consistency. However, if the results mentioned above turn out to be true over the long term, some reds might need to be cellared longer. Am I getting what you wrote? And if I am, how would you calculate estimated cellar time, other than with a corkscrew? Serious questions from a relative newbie, and the wisdom of the group is genuinely appreciated.

"...how would you calculate estimated cellar time, other than with a corkscrew?"

A near perfect observation is within your question...

"...how would you calculate estimated cellar time, other than with a corkscrew?"

A near perfect observation is within your question...

Unfortunately, many of us are not able to buy wine by the case, and try to estimate when the one precious bottle should be opened based upon information available. Clearly, if I have a case or two of something I can start opening them one at a time until get lucky. But my question goes beyond that- if I only have a bottle or two of something that cost dear or was a particular gift, how should the switch to a screwcap adjust my estimate, if at all? Is this, somehow, an inappropriate question? If so, I hope some kind-hearted soul would explain the error of my ways.

Unfortunately, many of us are not able to buy wine by the case, and try to estimate when the one precious bottle should be opened based upon information available. Clearly, if I have a case or two of something I can start opening them one at a time until get lucky. But my question goes beyond that- if I only have a bottle or two of something that cost dear or was a particular gift, how should the switch to a screwcap adjust my estimate, if at all? Is this, somehow, an inappropriate question? If so, I hope some kind-hearted soul would explain the error of my ways.

Estimating the "drinking window" of a wine is always fraught with inaccuracies and guesswork, not mention the fact that it depends on one's tastes in aged wine. A move to screwcaps will mean more consistent aging for a given wine, which if anything will make the whole prognostication business easier. Still, how to know when to open your solitaire bottle? Ask other people about their recent experiences, look at recent tasting notes posted on a site like this or on cellartracker's site, and take your best guess. It's not like a bad guess will mean an undrinkable wine, after all...

Mark Lipton

In today’s day and age, because there are now a number of different enclosures to choose from, one would think that- the way the wine is made, and the vision and goal or the winemaker, will be a deciding factor in choosing the correct enclosure for a particular wine. And hopefully the winemaker makes the correct choice. IMHO a “one size fits all” screw cap is not the way to go, especially when there are various different types and styles of wines that can be produced.
Both a small amount of oxidation and reduction can be beneficial to an age worthy red as it gracefully ages in its bottle. And I think it’s a good thing to know that the screw cap manufactures are designing cap screws with different liners which allow slightly different oxygen ingress rates. Because natural cork can have a various oxygen transmission rate, and it is extremely difficult to measure this with any real accuracy, trying to discover what is actually going on inside a bottle of wine as it ages is almost impossible. Now with screw caps, which can be intentionally designed to allow a consistent oxygen ingress rate, I think the “science of bottle aging” will be better understood.

Salute

I LOVE the Vino-Lok. I was shocked to find it under a capsule of Calera Pinot Noir the other day. Oddly enough, I saw a few Weinbachs under Vino-lok for '04, but just purchased some '05s and didn't see any.



Prost!
Bill

... if I only have a bottle or two of something that cost dear or was a particular gift, how should the switch to a screwcap adjust my estimate, if at all? Is this, somehow, an inappropriate question? If so, I hope some kind-hearted soul would explain the error of my ways.

...Still, how to know when to open your solitaire bottle? Ask other people about their recent experiences, look at recent tasting notes posted on a site like this or on cellartracker's site, and take your best guess. It's not like a bad guess will mean an undrinkable wine, after all...
Mark Lipton

Bingo!
cheers,
Graeme