“Popped a recent vintage of a very high end wine from a mailing list…”
Identical experience last month. Let them know, got a phone call from the owner and it was(will be) replaced. One thing they said it when I described the corked wine(complete lack of aroma, little to no taste, no finish) they said they thought it might be heat damaged instead although it was shipped overnight directly from the winery in cool weather and was immediately placed in my home temp. controlled cellar. I had their wines many, many times before at a similar age and this was a real outlier. Shocking in fact. Tasted like wine in a box, but worse. All’s well that ends well I imagine, but I am concerned for the other wines in the same shipment that I have not tried yet if indeed it was heat damage.
Is it possible that screw cap wines are prone to oxidation? To me, only if the machinery and/or the cap/bottle match are not ideal. This happened to me once - my first vintage with a small bottling - and I had small amounts of ‘random oxidation’ on a white, but that’s it . . . And I’ve been bottling screw caps since 2006.
Your post reinforces the concept that we do not speak a ‘common language’ in our industry - and we are no where closer to doing so today than we were a decade ago.
The way you described your wine, I would be more prone to say that it is simply ‘shut down’ at this time. The only way to ‘confirm’ that it was ‘lightly corked’ would be to open another one up immediately and have them side by side.
It does not sound like heat damage to me at all - but again, since we do not speak a ‘common language’, it very well might be.
If you are truly concerned, I would open another one up immediately. You’ve already ‘sacrificed one’ and the winery is willing to reimburse - what do you have to lose? AND if you wait too long, you risk the possibility of not getting any bottles that need to be replaced with the same vintage.
Thanks. I’m familiar with wines that are shut down, and this was similar, but altogether different. The only aroma was an odd one, off, tainted if you will. It’s a big wine, highly extracted and one I’ve had in the past(different vintages) at the same stage of development. Night and day. I will keep you informed as I plan to try one of the others this weekend.
But to me, that’s the ‘problem’ - the only way to know would be to be very familiar with this specific wine and how it is supposed to smell and taste. And this depends on your sensitivity to TCA, etc.
I made the comment I made because you also mentioned an ‘off’ smell in one of your recent posts.
Yes, was ‘off’ in a sense that you would not get in a wine that was shut down for example.
BTW, I only mentioned this to the winery because I was contacting them on another matter and mentioned it as as aside, i.e. no big deal. They took the extra step to call me and offer replacement(and an expensive replacement no less). They will keep my business for sure.
Thanks for the reply. And you should be glad you did say something.
Look, as a mailing list customer, you have made a commitment to the winery to purchase their wines; they too have made a commitment to you to deliver ‘sound’ wines. If the wines are not ‘sound’, they SHOULD make things right. Period.
I’ve never seen a problem with oxidation under screw cap, no, and the only way I know that it could happen is if the machinery was not adjusted properly, as you say. Whereas with cork oxidative variation is normal.
Had a Bedrock that was corked. Told Chris and he sent the same wine in replacement on the next release.
Had a corked Carlisle, Mike had a refund on my card by the following morning.
Both will obviously get thousands $$$ from me into the future.
Ach, I should have been more clear. What I meant was that I once thought that screw caps made sense for our light whites but due to the quality issues around the effectiveness of the seals I have serious reservations now. All I can tell you is these various bottlings were done on state of the art equipment by professional bottlers. I am glad they are working out for you.
That said, I have had many oxidized wines under screw cap from other brands as well where the caps either weren’t tight enough or were banged up enough on the edge to compromise the seal.
In that case, instead of saying that they may be good for ‘short term’ wines, just say that, to you, they are not good for any wines. At least then folks won’t hear you reinforce that often-stated but, from my and many other folks’ perspectives, incorrect assertion that only wines meant for short term aging should be under screwcap.
I’d love to hear more about the oxidative issues you’ve encountered - and in most cases, were you able to ‘confirm’ it was the closure and not the wine or winemaking? Was the same wine bottled under different closures? And did you notice anything with the cap or bottle that made you curious as to how or why?
HI Olivier - it could. We haven’t trialed those closures, however, and have no intent to cuz we’re happy with what we have. I haven’t seen any science on them that they actually work as planned. I’d be curious to know more though.
As for the seal on screwcaps being better, I disagree as far as vs the closures we use. That screw cap is very susceptible to being compromised by the slightest “bang” on the crown or not being fully “screwed” onto the bottled or being jarred loose from being screwed onto the bottle. Corks (either regular, technical (agglomerate) or synthetic - all of which are coated with paraffin or something like it) mold to the neck of the bottle in a fashion far superior to that of screwcaps on the edge of the bottle. Once its in, its in. Yes, there are flawed corks and oxidation with regular cork for sure but, again, I have a zero failure rate with agglomerate or synthetic corks.
Probably not heat damage as you indicate but low level TCA…AKA Insidious Cork Taint. Knocks down the aromatics and fruit impact on the palate but is not immediately detactable as “corked”. Hard to say but more likely than heat damage which would give you a strong aromatic profile, not a lack or aroma.
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