I bought a bottle of Il Coroncino 2016 Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi ‘Il Coroncino’ based on a combination generally liking a good Verdicchio and a great review from Ian d’Agata. I poured a glass via Coravin and thought it was as good as he did. I bought a couple of cases. I uncorked the bottle days later and found it was stuffed with this Nomacorc thing. I’m all for alternative closures when I plan to drink the wine in the next year or so – but, I was hoping to enjoy this over the next 10-12 years.
Tell me about this fake cork. Proven track record? Or, should I plan on putting this in the rotation because I’m just rolling dice forgetting it in the cellar for a while…?
And, since I mentioned Ian d’Agata – anyone listen to Levi Dalton’s ‘I’ll Drink to That’ podcast with Ian? Fantastic. I feel guilty for not sending Levi a check. I might still. His interviews are priceless. I only found him through a reference on this board and I must say, if you haven’t listened to his interviews with Jean-Louis Chave, or Becky Wasserman, or any number of other wine luminaries and not so luminaries… you are truly missing out. Props to Levi. I need to meet the guy someday. Great interviewer and deserves to have his own NPR show.
Levi – if you read this… how about an interview of these Novacorc people…
I’d direct the question to the Nomacorc manufacturer. Their response will be, of course, biased, but they might point you toward some actual research. We can all say “I love cork, “Cork is antiquated garbage,” or whatever, but you’re looking for actual performance data.
I’ll never understand this line of thought. The winemaker has made an informed decision to use the product based on substantial research/analysis. They are professionals whose livelihood depends on the wine arriving at the end user, and being consumed, as intended. It’s not a spur of the moment decision. If the decision of the winemaker to use the product doesn’t inform your point of view, how are opinions from a group of amateurs you know nothing about going to help you?
I decided to trust Hardy & keep buying, but the damn Nomacorcs are a total pain to remove from the bottle! I had thought it was a one time issue, but it keeps recurring.
I’m just surprised that Jim is planning on cellaring his verdicchio for 10-12 years! It just would never have occurred to me. It is such a fresh, inviting drink in the summer, I would not have even considered that sort of bottle age. Learn something every day
Levi has interviews with a couple of verdicchio producers – Bucci among them. They reference that 10-12+ year window. Similarly, Ian’s drinking window for the 2016 Coroncino extends through 2030. Of course, there’s a lot of crap verdicchio out there… so, it’s probably generally best on release.
I do hate the fake corks, though. They’re a PITA to get out and I have little confidence that I’m anything but an experiment for the company who makes them. We’ll probably find out 20 years from now that they leached some carcinogen into the wine…
I’ve been hanging out on wine boards since Robin Garr started WLDG. If I thought that all of the responses to my question would come from ‘a group of amateurs that know nothing’ I would not have asked it here. If all this board is is a bunch of amateurs who don’t know anything – what’s the point, really?
Since I can’t easily reach the winemaker to ask him what his thinking was with respect to choosing the closure – I asked the question here. For all I know, he bottled for the US working under the assumption that no one in the States would store a bottle of verdicchio more than a year. If the cost of said closure is lower or if it returns fewer flawed bottles in the first 2 years – it’s not hard to imagine someone would make that choice.
And, while I always expect people who don’t know will render an opinion on this or other boards – there are a lot of people who hang on this board who are likely more qualified to answer my question than the winemaker.
I’ll never understand this line of thought: that winemakers’ decisions on closure or anything else must be informed and based on substantial research/analysis. Lots of winemakers and all other types of people make bad, uninformed, and/or irrational decisions all the time, even when their livelihoods are on the line. I’m not saying anything about Dirty & Rowdy or Il Coroncino specifically, but your blanket assumption (as it seems to be) makes no sense at all. Plus, there are people who have posted on this board who probably know more about wine closures than 95+% of winemakers.
The feedback from winemakers who actually use Nomacorc/screwcap on WB is fairly robust and informative regarding testing (also good feedback from winemakers who choose not to use synthetics). The amout of time Hardy Wallace has spent attempting to educate people on this board as to why he went with Nomacorc is impressive. Equally impressive is the amount of people who choose to ignore everything that doesn’t treat synthetic corks as anathema. It’s your own call if you simply don’t want to buy any wine bottled under a synthetic cork. A better option would be to ignore winemakers that make bad, uniformed and irrational decisions when making wine.
I have had so many Nomacorc finished wines that were compromised. This goes back ten years. Eviscerated, oxidized and just plain unpleasant. I used to keep a running list but since have forgotten, Most recently, Rostaing’s Les Lezards bottlings both the 2010 & 2012 neither of which seemed “right” to me.
I much prefer Diam and do not recall a bad bottle (flawed) under Diam.
I think in general that I somewhat agree with Doug on this. When it comes down to it, a considerable amount of “knowledge” about these products, comes to winemakers from seminars put on by the products producers. Unbiased research is often hard to come by. In house testing often requires years to really show evidence beyond anecdotal levels.
I do doubt there are actually that many posters here that know more than 95% of winemakers, but any who do post…I would love to ask you a few questions.
Regarding Nomacorc, my only experience was with a Pinot Blanc we bottled under three closures; natural cork, Nomacorc, and screwcap. 6 months after bottling the Nomacorc closed wines were considerably advanced in the aging curve. My preference was the natural cork, but I do currently use Diam.
For the Dirty & Rowdy situation, Nomacorc seems like it might evolve the wines from a closed state more rapidly. For 10-12 year aging of medium bodied whites, Nomacork seems less than ideal but the winemaker should know what they want to do.
There was a 2007 research paper done by a school in France whose findings demonstrated a much more oxidative aging process in synthetics.
Marcus certainly make some wonderful points. One thing to note, though, are the closures that Hardy uses are made of plant-based materials and a relatively new. Therefore, any studies done a decade ago will not have taken this type of material into account.
The choice of closure is certainly a major one, and I don’t think winemaker’s take that choice lightly. I take that back. I think some do I simply choosing the most popular or the cheapest or the coolest closure that is available. Many of us, though, think of all factors when choosing a closure. And I’m sure Hardy did as well.
At the end of the day, though, there’s a lot of things that research simply cannot and will not show. And that’s part of the joy and magic of The Craft we all love so much.
