Corks, Screw caps or Boxed

I used to have a very romantic view concerning the closure for a bottle of wine. There was just something about pulling a cork that elevated the experience beyond a mere beverage. Then, as I began to travel and see more wines and wineries and talk to wine makers who were dismayed at losing around 12 percent of their product to fault caused by corks, my views began to evolve.

More importantly, as I began to taste fresh, vibrant wines such as Gruner Veltliners and Rieslings from Austria and Germany, I was happy to find that the wines tasted great when bottled under screw cap. Quality was not being compromised; at least not on the wines that are meant to be drunk young. But what about ageing the wines? There are precious few wineries making wines to which I have access that have been bottling wines under screwcap for long enough to be able to assess a few bottles of old wine bottled under screwcap. Then, as luck would have it, we held a food and wine event here that featured the great Australian winemaker, Chris Ringland. He brought with him a number of wines, including a 10 year old Australian red wine that had been bottled under screw cap. To our surprise, the wine tasted incredibly fresh. In fact, it tasted very much as if it hadn’t evolved much at all as it would have if it had been bottled with a cork closure. My opinions began to take stronger form. Screw caps make sense for wines that you don’t want to age! Use them for the fresh, young, vibrant wines and save the small supply of great corks for the bottles of wine that you want to age and evolve.

Then on a trip to Southern France in an area called Gigondas, I was impressed by a winery’s wine and I asked to buy a couple of bottles from them. They responded by asking if I wanted the wines in bottles or boxes. I was astounded. To them it seemed as simple a question as asking whether I wanted paper or plastic, but to me the question sparked another emotion. Having learned about wines here in the U.S., I knew boxed wine to mean “low quality” so naturally, I asked for bottles.

It turns out however that is a stigma of boxed wine being poor quality doesn’t exist worldwide. The box of wine (which is actually a box with a bladder inside of it) is a great way to keep wines from oxidizing or going bad once you open them since the wines never come in contact with much oxygen (great for by the glass programs or for keeping wine at home if you just want a glass each night). It’s also more efficient for shipping purposes. But again, this is not a storage device if you want a wine for long term ageing. Instead it’s for wines that you will drink young and by the glass or carafe which is how most consumers are drinking their wines these days. They tend to buy it and drink it within a short period of time rather than age it.

To me, I now have an opinion. Bottles and corks are the preferred closure and vessel for wines that I plan to age or wines that I want to evolve. We can save the small supply of great cork for this purpose and focus on the new closures for those wines that we want to drink early. At the end of the day, it’s the quality of the wine that counts as well as how you intend to use that wine.

I used to have a very romantic view concerning the closure for a bottle of wine. There was just something about pulling a cork that elevated the experience beyond a mere beverage. Then, as I began to travel and see more wines and wineries and talk to wine makers who were dismayed at losing around 12 percent of their product to fault caused by corks, my views began to evolve.

More importantly, as I began to taste fresh, vibrant wines such as Gruner Veltliners and Rieslings from Austria and Germany, I was happy to find that the wines tasted great when bottled under screw cap. Quality was not being compromised; at least not on the wines that are meant to be drunk young. But what about ageing the wines? There are precious few wineries making wines to which I have access that have been bottling wines under screwcap for long enough to be able to assess a few bottles of old wine bottled under screwcap. Then, as luck would have it, we held a food and wine event here that featured the great Australian winemaker, Chris Ringland. He brought with him a number of wines, including a 10 year old Australian red wine that had been bottled under screw cap. To our surprise, the wine tasted incredibly fresh. In fact, it tasted very much as if it hadn’t evolved much at all as it would have if it had been bottled with a cork closure. My opinions began to take stronger form. Screw caps make sense for wines that you don’t want to age! Use them for the fresh, young, vibrant wines and save the small supply of great corks for the bottles of wine that you want to age and evolve.

Then on a trip to Southern France in an area called Gigondas, I was impressed by a winery’s wine and I asked to buy a couple of bottles from them. They responded by asking if I wanted the wines in bottles or boxes. I was astounded. To them it seemed as simple a question as asking whether I wanted paper or plastic, but to me the question sparked another emotion. Having learned about wines here in the U.S., I knew boxed wine to mean “low quality” so naturally, I asked for bottles.

It turns out however that is a stigma of boxed wine being poor quality doesn’t exist worldwide. The box of wine (which is actually a box with a bladder inside of it) is a great way to keep wines from oxidizing or going bad once you open them since the wines never come in contact with much oxygen (great for by the glass programs or for keeping wine at home if you just want a glass each night). It’s also more efficient for shipping purposes. But again, this is not a storage device if you want a wine for long term ageing. Instead it’s for wines that you will drink young and by the glass or carafe which is how most consumers are drinking their wines these days. They tend to buy it and drink it within a short period of time rather than age it.

To me, I now have an opinion. Bottles and corks are the preferred closure and vessel for wines that I plan to age or wines that I want to evolve. We can save the small supply of great cork for this purpose and focus on the new closures for those wines that we want to drink early. At the end of the day, it’s the quality of the wine that counts as well as how you intend to use that wine.

I used to have a very romantic view concerning the closure for a bottle of wine. There was just something about pulling a cork that elevated the experience beyond a mere beverage. Then, as I began to travel and see more wines and wineries and talk to wine makers who were dismayed at losing around 12 percent of their product to fault caused by corks, my views began to evolve.

More importantly, as I began to taste fresh, vibrant wines such as Gruner Veltliners and Rieslings from Austria and Germany, I was happy to find that the wines tasted great when bottled under screw cap. Quality was not being compromised; at least not on the wines that are meant to be drunk young. But what about ageing the wines? There are precious few wineries making wines to which I have access that have been bottling wines under screwcap for long enough to be able to assess a few bottles of old wine bottled under screwcap. Then, as luck would have it, we held a food and wine event here that featured the great Australian winemaker, Chris Ringland. He brought with him a number of wines, including a 10 year old Australian red wine that had been bottled under screw cap. To our surprise, the wine tasted incredibly fresh. In fact, it tasted very much as if it hadn’t evolved much at all as it would have if it had been bottled with a cork closure. My opinions began to take stronger form. Screw caps make sense for wines that you don’t want to age! Use them for the fresh, young, vibrant wines and save the small supply of great corks for the bottles of wine that you want to age and evolve.

Then on a trip to Southern France in an area called Gigondas, I was impressed by a winery’s wine and I asked to buy a couple of bottles from them. They responded by asking if I wanted the wines in bottles or boxes. I was astounded. To them it seemed as simple a question as asking whether I wanted paper or plastic, but to me the question sparked another emotion. Having learned about wines here in the U.S., I knew boxed wine to mean “low quality” so naturally, I asked for bottles.

It turns out however that is a stigma of boxed wine being poor quality doesn’t exist worldwide. The box of wine (which is actually a box with a bladder inside of it) is a great way to keep wines from oxidizing or going bad once you open them since the wines never come in contact with much oxygen (great for by the glass programs or for keeping wine at home if you just want a glass each night). It’s also more efficient for shipping purposes. But again, this is not a storage device if you want a wine for long term ageing. Instead it’s for wines that you will drink young and by the glass or carafe which is how most consumers are drinking their wines these days. They tend to buy it and drink it within a short period of time rather than age it.

To me, I now have an opinion. Bottles and corks are the preferred closure and vessel for wines that I plan to age or wines that I want to evolve. We can save the small supply of great cork for this purpose and focus on the new closures for those wines that we want to drink early. At the end of the day, it’s the quality of the wine that counts as well as how you intend to use that wine.