It’s on Sat 18 July, same wines closed with screwcaps and corks will be opened and compared in a blind tasting. Unfortunately I can’t attend, is anybody planning to go and report? I would love to hear about this.
Any other winery doing the same kind of experiment?
Carlisle bottled their 2007 Sonoma Coast Zin with traditional cork and a screw cap and released to membes in two packs.
Kathleen Inman bottled her 03/04/05 OGV pinot with a combo of cork and Stelvin closure. I’ve yet to have the chance to make that comparison, but she has mentioned that the Stelvin wines are much fresher/brighter when compared to their cork counterparts.
The following link may or may not be pertinent:
A Whiff of Controversy and South African Wines
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/world/africa/29stellenbosch.html?scp=1&sq=burnt%20rubber&st=cse" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
South African wines are not the only ones she has detected with grievous faults. A few months ago, she tasted “a whole slew of supposedly top-notch” Marlborough sauvignons from New Zealand. These wines, she wrote, were not only “watery” and “grassy,” they were “evil.”
As many know Plumpjack has been doing this for years on their reserve cab…has anybody tasted these side by side?
Thanks for the heads up Guillaume! I might have to pop 'round and try them out.
Sounds like something Peachy Canyon should pay for… “Professional Development” ![[wink.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/04707e6a7bbb03e0153e349d8a9270d30e1e9525.gif "wink"){kind=small}
Yeah…right.
Oh man, I’d LOVE to hear feedback on the Plumpjack’s if anyone has any. Have the 04 Reserve screw cap in the locker right now…
Harvey Steiman at WS wrote up a tasting he attended about a year ago where at least 8 of the 10 or so vintages under screw cap and cork from Plumpjack were tasted side by side with the folks from Plumpjack . . . From what I remember, the younger cabs were quite different - with those under screwcap more primary and vibrant; the oldest ones were actually quite similar to each other (cork and sc) . . . You might do a search of this.
Mike Officer bottled a zin IIRC under SC and cork a few years back and sent off matching sets for people to compare/contrast. I know ‘the other board’ had many a note on these . . .
Would be a great tasting to go to at TC - do you know how far back they go with both closures? Wonder if they’ll have anything older than a year or two . . .
Cheers!
Larry, so helpful, as always! I found that story you mentioned.
If anyone wants to read it (might need a WS subscription), http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Blogs/Blog_Detail/0,4211,1800,00.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I got on their web site to get info on the tasting, and it said they have been bottling under both since 2002.
Augie Hug at Hug Cellars bottled his most recent zin under both cork and screwcap…have only tasted the screwcap version however
Is the winemaker going to be there? Anyone taste the Tablas Creek screw capped wines? Any sulfide character in the reds under screwcap?
Astute.
Linda,
They have been bottling under both finishes since 1997 . . .
Peter,
Knowing TC, either the winemaker or Jason Haas will most likely be there . . .
Why do you ask about the sulfide issues? Have you experienced these with a lot of reds under screw caps? Just curious . . .
Cheers!
tasted screwcapped wines with sulfide issues. its a problem for some wineries. seems to rear btween 1-5 years then in some cases backs off.
about to bottle 375s in screwcap. the perfect size bottle for the micro-ox of screw cap closure?
Larry you going up to this seminar?
Peter,
Will not be going up for the seminar - wish I could . . .
If you’re concerned, go with the saranex liner, not the saratin - will allow for more trans-ox . . .
Cheers!
An interesting article here:
http://www.foodarts.com/Foodarts/FA_Feature/0,,302,00.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
And an excerpt:
Many winemakers accept noncork closures for whites, but what about reds? Trials have been going on in cellars around the world, with differing conclusions. Paul Draper, chief executive and winemaker at California’s Ridge Vineyards, has been testing alternative closures since the early 1990s and has rejected all of them so far.
“We’ve found that plastic corks and the Vino-Seal allow in too much air and cause the wines to age too rapidly,” he says. "Conversely, under standard airtight screw caps, the wines hardly age at all, whereas with cork the wines develop the complexity with time that we’re looking for. We’re not sure how, but it seems some air penetrates the cork or is released from within the cork, making the wine more complex. We haven’t yet found a closure that will do that better than cork.
“We test all our cork samples very rigorously and often reject batches. Nothing’s foolproof, but we’ve kept cork failure down to around 2 percent. We haven’t tested Diam because a conglomerate cork is not really a cork, but we’ll keep looking at anything interesting that comes down the pike.”
By contrast, Henschke says the first reds he put under screw cap in 1995 “have developed beautifully. They do age more slowly than with most corks, in the same way wine ages slower in a bigger bottle like a double magnum. It’s a misconception that wines need extra air through a cork. In fact, French research from decades ago showed that wine ages better without additional air, and the AWRI’s recent research has shown that the best corks act just like a screw cap, by keeping oxygen out.”