Love a good screw

A couple of aged beauties under screwcap last night.

2001 Grosset Riesling Polish Hill Clare Valley: Sealed under screwcap, this was drinking perfectly. There a hint of honey and toast development along with a smoky mineral note. It is rich and full, with lime brullee and preserved lemon flavours. It has good intensity and excellent length.

2007 Brokenwood Sémillon ILR Reserve: Sealed under screwcap, this has an inviting nose of lemon butter, mint, toast and dried herbs. It has a steely backbone and is starting to flesh out, showing intense citrus fruit flavours. It has great poise and cut and is thoroughly engaging and refreshing.

Our nice run of aged Aussie wines was ruined by cork. A 1998 Wendouree Shiraz Mataro was splendid in every way apart from an annoying whiff of tca.

I’ve probably learned more about the potential of screwcap wines from Aussie Riesling than anywhere else. A credit to the industry that this was explored as early as it was. Wonderful stuff from the Clare Valley.

Two of my favorite Aussie whites. I am envious of those bottles. Thanks for the TNs!

Drank a 2007 Inman OGV Pinot under screwcap a couple of days ago, and I was impressed by the freshness of it. Though I have to wonder if the aging curve is retarded quite a bit, which is somewhat of a concern to me.

Paul,

That’s a really good question - and of course there is no way to know unless you have multiple bottles of each under different closures and check them out over long periods of time.

It’s also dependent upon the liner used - as you know, some allow kotler oxygen in and some less. My guess is that these Aussie ones had run liners, allowing just a little O2 in over time.

Of course, you don’t have to worry about TCA, so there is that!

Cheers.

There is little doubt in my mind that the aging curve is extremely shallow. If the goal is freshness I believe screwcaps are the way to go. However, if secondary and tertiary aromas are your jam you’ll need extra decades. Or just use cork.

Todd,

But no hard data to back up your claims - and that will always be the.challenge . . .

Cheers

Why would cork allow for secondary and tertiary character that screw caps wouldn’t?

If there’s some science that can answer the question, you could just engineer the screw cap to mimic those properties.

And then manufacture them in the millions.

I’m aging some B-H Syrah just to see how it turns out. Good young and I’m expecting even better in the future.

screw cap yeah baby!

If I didn’t know your palate pretty well, I would have said your post was tasteless. (That’s a joke, BTW).

I always leave out hard data when I’m talking art…

Todd,

When screwcaps are scientifically proven to allow air into the bottles at rates predetermined by the manufacturer, why would you just come out and say only corks allow wines to develop in a reasonable amount of time?

Australians like Jeremy have been cellaring wines under screwcap for around 2 decades. I’m sure going to trust their experiences over those of people who have little or no experience in this area.

But that’s just me…

I screwcapped only fifteen years ago… which isn’t too shabby.

And your wines don’t develop? Strange.

At least you can open one when it’s 50 years old and say, “wow! This wine is amazing! Tastes like it’s still young!”

And you can save on those expensive wine storage facilities

I hope your reading comprehension improves.

No idea what you’re on about.