I am so sick of cork

Another corked bottle tonight makes 4 in the last 3 weeks. All were recent releases. So if cork is getting better I am sure not seeing it. Still hovering around 6% corked this year.

Bring on the screw caps. Only one bad bottle so far this year and the winery promptly replaced the bottle.

Diam. I bet you will, from certain regions, start seeing a major shift to that particular entity. We are all in and I know a lot of producers here moving or have moved to it.

Good to know Jim. Makes me more inclined to try your wines.

Three corked bottles tonight: 1999 Behrens&Hitchcock Merlot, 1997 Ravenswood Monte Rosso Zin and 1996 Kendall Jackson reserve CS. In all three cases was vaguely thankful they were corked, as, otherwise, I’d have had to drink them. 15+% monsters full of heat and sweet. Were All WineBid larks as I was developing my tastes. Sometimes corked bottles are good things…

Didn’t Behrens & Hitchcock use very poor composite corks, resulting in a lot of their wines around 1999 ending up becoming oxidized? I seem to recall that. Of course, that’s not the same thing as being corked.

It was a rubber looking cork. Piece of shit on all levels.

I have only experienced one corked wine all year.

Luckily, it was only a 2005 Haut Brion.

FWIW, that Ravenswood isn’t always so big. 1997 was a rough year for Sonoma zin. Got real hot.

I am about 30 bottles down without cork. It comes in waves. I am sure I will get hit with 3 in a row to bring the avg back to normal. I will be drinking cheap bottles until I get past those 3 corkers.

Luckily, it was only a 2005 Haut Brion.

Don’t know if you were serious or not but I did have a 2005 corked HB at the WS Wine Experience of all things. I got a free ticket so of course I went and the lady pours me a glass and it was horrible. I told her the wine wasn’t good, she sniffs it and opens another bottle. Meantime there’s this loud guy and his wife with another couple and he’s telling them to really inhale that aroma because it speaks of the terroir of HB. He asks for more, she takes the corked bottle and pours him a refill, then looks at me and shrugs.

I figure for over $900 a bottle, they should fly over and hand-deliver a new one.

Sadly, I was dead serious. It was slightly corked, enough to kill ia full appreciation of it, but not enough to where the group noticed. MarcF and I both caught it and were saddened.

We decanted a 2003 Nicolas Joly savenierres coulee de serrant about 6 hours then put it back in the bottle. We brought it to our favorite restaurant to pair with our favorite snapper dish. We were so bummed–it was corked big time. The wine was so muted, therefore not even close to being drinkable. We were so looking forward to the pairing.

Screwcap is the way to go. Diam is not the savior. A few Aussie wineries have not been happy with the results of their wines under Diam after 5+ years.

Robert - that is REALLY sad. For two reasons - first, for the price of HB, you just don’t want to have a bad or even mediocre experience. Second, when it’s on, it truly is one of the finest wines in the world and the 2005 should be spectacular. Sorry for your loss.

As far as the Nicholas Joly wine, well, it’s biodynamic. It may not have been corked at all. That may simply be a case of misaligned energy fields.

I could say the same in reverse. I’m willing to give it the shot that a lot of.producers worldwide are doing.

Honestly, having had the 03 Joly when it was BTG locally, a little cork taint might help the wine.

Jim,

Just giving you a ‘heads up’ on what we have experienced as an industry down here. Diam is fine for wines that are consumed within the first couple of years of bottling. The wines seem to show a dull character after 5+ years in bottle. I know the likes of James Halliday, who has tasted 1000’s of wines under Diam, is not convinced that it is the right closure for aging quality wine.

Screwcap has been used widely here since the early 00’s and there are examples of wines from the 70’s that still drink well today. I had a delicious 2004 Arrivo Nebbiolo last night that was developing perfectly under screwcap.

Best Regards
Jeremy

You kids are jinxing me… I know it.

It’s been a while for me, I just know it’s coming in triplicate now, since you brought it up!

I may be an odd sort that’s taken two wineries from cork to screwcap, then started my own under screwcap. And then switched back to corks, because I like it better (hands down) and I’ve read heaps of data all about it, but there’s an intrinsic thing that’s intangible about cork which I do believe is worth the risk.