Adios wine cork
Possibly you have uncorked many bottles of wine during your life. It also sounds so logical, "uncorking a bottle", but there has been a significant change going on in the wine world for some time, which may turn this logical action into "unscrewing a bottle" in a few years' time. You guessed it, of course I am talking about the emergence of the screw cap as a replacement for the cork on wine bottles.
I regularly discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a real wine cork and notice in particular that many people, parting from a kind of negative sentiment, already launch the screw cap as bogeyman and then immediately conclude that they are only used with the cheapest wines of poor quality.
Of course it is true that for many years people knew nothing other than that wine should be closed by a cork. And traditions are hard to break and every change is often perceived as negative. Well, dear wine lovers, then I have some shocking news for some of you; the wine cork is increasingly being replaced by a screw cap. Of course every winemaker wants the best for his wine and you will understand that if this change would be negative for the taste/quality of the wine, he would not carry it through. And although the stylish opening of a bottle of wine, with the cork plopping out of the bottle (you shouldn´t do that anyway), for many is the beginning of a social gathering, the screw cap also has its advantages...
Cork is made from the bark of the cork oak that occurs mainly in Portugal and Spain. The center of the cork industry in Spain can be found along the Costa Brava, in Saint Feliu de Guixols and Selva. In Portugal, cork industry can be found with Alentejo as the most important area. Every ten years the loose cork layer can be removed from the tree. The cork oak does not die off but produces a new cork layer. After the harvest the round cork plates are flattened and then dried, then cut out and cooked (this increases the elasticity). Afterwards, corks are drilled from the cork slabs using a hollow drill. In recent years, more and more wine is affected by trichloroanisols TCA, the substance that causes the nasty "cork flavor" and occurs in the cork oak bark. Some vintners claim that even 5% of their wines were affected. Improvement in storage and sterilization of the bark have in the meantime stabilized the unrest, but it appears that an average of 1 in 12 bottles has "cork". From a business point of view it would be very unusual to tolerate a margin of error of between 5 and 8%. If every company allowed such tolerance, many would have to close their doors within the shortest times. And that is also the reason why the screw cap would gain in popularity. Apart from the fact that it also has useful benefits; For example, you do not have to store the bottles lying down. The reason for storing wine bottles lying them down was/is because the cork dries out in standing position (because it is not kept wet by the wine), then becomes porous, and therefore oxygen can penetrate and the wine starts to oxidize. A screw cap does not become porous and that is why the problem is out of the world. You also see plastic corks nowadays but these often have the disadvantage that they do not seal the bottle neck 100% and the same problem of oxygen into the bottle can arise. The screw cap is already used a lot. Just think of the bottles in the plane and the many types of smaller bottles that we find in the supermarket. The Australian Wine Research Institute has done 10 years of scientific research into the effects of a screw cap on wine. In addition, they used 14 different kinds of corks, including plastic corks and an aluminum screw cap. The bottles were treated and stored in an identical manner. Watching the state of the discoloration of the wines they controlled the state of it. And in the end all bottles were tasted blind. And what do you think? The wine with screw cap had the longest “shelf life”. Some wines had become undrinkable after 28 months due to oxidation.
More and more large well-known quality wine growers are making the switch. By one of the largest wineries in New Zealand you can read on the door: 'Cork free'.
Although I also get a warm feeling when uncorking a good bottle, I also go with the times and have a line of delicious young wines (white, rosé and red) with screw cap under my own label on the market.
Roel Peters RP-Vinos España
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