Cork vs Screwcap

Pic courtesy of Gregory Patriat. Same wine, 2005 Albert Mann Pinot Gris Grand Cru. One under cork one under screwcap. Cork wine on the right badly oxidised.

It’s crazy that producers of white wines that are showing vulnerability to premox are not switching to screwcaps.

But the market isn’t punishing producers for premox (anyone see White Burg prices softening? me neither); if it did, producers would actually have to consider doing something about it.

No no. We need evidence of the issue, not just a photo and your “story.”

Thank you for posting that.

Curious if any screw tops from that producer premox.

Or even at differing rates.

I just the other night had a very nice Grosset Chardonnay Piccadilly 2005, under screwcap, perfectly light color and fresh as can be.

I also recently had a Domaine Laroche Chablis Le Clos 2002 under screwcap, in perfect condition. But I think I read recently that Laroche is going back away from their limited use of screwcaps back to all cork. How’s that for progress.

Here was the famous Australia Wine Institute experiment on bottles of 1999 Leasingham Clare Valley Semillon. The one bottle on our left is the one with a screw cap.

503×719 63.5 KB

There are some astonishing replies here ! As in the panels above this question is long settled in Australia for white wine with numerous industry and institute tastings. Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay is the clincher for me as we have aged a case every year since the early nineties : the screw cap wines are consistent, they age slowly and properly in the way that a cork closure will do if your lucky. Never a bad bottle - where it that White Burgundy was the same ! I would buy screw cap sealed Grand Crus from my favourite makers any day ! That we accept continued rubbish handling from the Cote D’Or is a tribute to our addiction and our optimism.

FIFY.

This picture is worth 10.000 words

This picture is worth 10,000 words

But, but, but…the romance of pulling a cork

We Australians have a twisted idea of romance

I think it is more romantic if you arrange for something else to be pulled.

Oh yes…and nothing has changed closure-wise in the last 17 years

Yes, exactly.

I wouldn’t buy 99% of our domestic wines unless it’s under screwcap.

Just so much more convenient, easier and safer, I can no longer see the point…

And also a zero oxidation rate out of many hundreds of bottles.

And they don’t punish producers of reds for using corks and having corked or oxidized wines either

Do screw caps just trade one problem for another? I thought some studies had shown that screw caps and lack of virtually any oxygen led to greater rate of reductive/sulfur flavors in wine?

Pick your poison – possible cork taint or mercaptans?

I am certainly no expert on closures. Just curious to hear from Aussies or Kiwis if screw caps really are all they are cracked up to be. Surely there must be some trade offs, no?

It is not really a problem these days as the liners in the screwcaps are designed for a certain amount of oxygen intake. Different liners will give a different amount, depending on what the winemaker wants to achieve.
Probably the biggest thing is you need to be a bit more careful with the bottles because if the screwcap gets dented that might impact the performance of the closure.

With the ability to control the ingress oxygen, there doesn’t seem to be.

There might need to be some adjustment for the extra head space…
Screwcaps CAN be damaged as well although Stelvin Lux seems more resistant to that as do Guala closures…But I’ve heard Lux has some issues with tightening consistently…

What it doesn’t do is impart any cork flavors into the wine…which may or may not be a good thing…Maybe some of the flavors you associate with an older wine and enjoy in an older wine might come from the cork itself…

But there is little doubt wines age under screwcap…