Screw it up! Part 1

Screw it up! Part 1
By Lori Randall

Does the wine industry really expect us take screw cap wines seriously? Just ask Hogue Cellars, which has 70% of production in screw caps and has invested thousands in the study of screw caps. Yes, they do.

Screw caps are no longer reserved for wines of less than acceptable quality and the presence of an aluminum top does not mean you can judge the wine’s price as under $10 a bottle.

Alternative closures to wine bottles are sought out by winemakers because the cork closure is less than perfect. Here’s why.

Imagine that 15% of your buisness products that go to market are bad or faulty. To top it off, a large portion of the customers that receive the bad product may not realize it is bad. They may just think they don’t like your product and will decide not to use it again.

This is the issue winemakers face with corks. As much as 7-18% of all bottles of wine will become “corked,” a term used to describe an off flavor in a wine that occurs from the interaction with the cork. Cork, a natural product made from the bark of a tree, is prone to developing mold, which creates a chemical infection of varying levels in the wine. Kiley Evans of Abacela notes, “We only get one shot at a new consumer.” Agreed!

And as consumers, would we be accepting of this in any other industry? Cars, clothing, sports equipment–what about restaurants? If 15% of all meals served were bad, that restaurant would be out of business in a heartbeat.

I know and understand this, yet I am so attached to the ritualism of removing a cork that I, like many of you, find myself reluctant to embrace the wines in these improved packages.

Imrpoved? Yes, by quite a bit. On the inside of a screw cap is a polyethylene liner covered with a special tin foil that creates an absolute airtight seal. This seal eliminates cork taint, wine oxiadation and allows for consistant aging of wine from bottle to bottle.

The controversy in the industry, which I was reminded of when my inbox filled with winemakers’ opinions, really comes down to tradition. The recent announcement of a top Portuguese winemaker who switched from corks to screw caps caused alarm in the world's biggest cork-producing country. "Our national pride is a little damaged from this issue," said Portuguese Wine Critic Joao Paulo Martins.

On the other side of the coin are comments from winemakers such as Kevin Cedergreen of Cedergreen Cellars who writes, “I now view cork like I view a growling dog, you can pet a growling dog but you will get bit often and occasionally that dog will go for your throat. Who needs it!”


I needed to come to terms with screw caps myself. So I sat down with a few wine friends to a tasting of about 40 wines with these closures to see if our predjudices could be changed and if we would be willing to retire our cork screws. Next month I’ll share our thoughts on the wines we tasted.



WoW of the month
Here’s a good example of the benefits of belonging to a wine club. Last month Charlie Hoppes, winemaker and owner of Fidelitas, invited me to attend his private wine club event held at the posh El Gaucho in Seattle. There was an elaborate spread of hosted hors d’oeuvres and a vertical tasting of his 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003 Bordeaux blends as well as a tasting of his six current releases. The wines were all stellar and the earthy, rich 2003 Walla Walla Cabernet ($40) was a knockout!