IT’S THE JUICE — NOT THE STOPPER — THAT COUNTS
Corks aren’t dead, but screw caps here to stay, especially if the wine is white
As we near the unofficial end of summer we have screw caps on our mind.
Oh relax, we are over the crusade — you can use them or not, consumers have made their choices for good and bad, and so too has the trade.
We were never against corks, just the faulty ones, the ones we in the business curiously referred to as “corked,” instead of a more useful — and truthful — word like stuffed, infected or damaged.
Over the years, cork manufacturers have stepped up their vigilance, and technology, trying to improve the reputation of the cork stopper. It’s an impossible job given natural cork seems to have little defence against any number of organisms that can compromise it and eventually affect the taste of the wine.
So why have some producers, even nations, chosen to remain faithful to cork? They insist their research says consumers are not yet ready to embrace screw caps. Apparently you think screw caps look cheap; or worse, that twist tops hearken back to a time when screw cap wine was pretty awful.
They also say cracking open a screw cap lacks the romance that comes with pulling a cork. Maybe, but the thought of a special wine aged for a decade pouring from a contaminated bottle is not the romance I’m looking for.
Over the last decade screw caps have changed the way wine drinkers interact with wine. The best part is how it has focused the attention of consumers on the product inside the bottle and whether or not it tastes as good, or better than the day it left the winery. That’s right, it’s the juice that counts, not the packaging.
That is why, in a more environ- mentally sensitive wine world, kegs and large bags of wine are making a big comeback, especially in restaurants. The bonus is less weight, lower shipping costs and a smaller carbon footprint — plus clean wine. A cardboard box containing two 9-litre bags of wine eliminates the bottles, labels, corks, packaging and the space required to ship two 12-bottle cases of wine.
It doesn’t mean corks are dead. It’s just that screw caps are here to stay at some level, especially if the wine is white and the grapes in question are Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Viognier, Ehrenfelser, Gewürztraminer (do you sense an aromatic theme?), Pinot Gris/ Grigio, Vermentino, or Picpoul. Not to mention rosé and even, a fair bit of Chardonnay.
Last weekend, as I walked the Gibsons government liquor store (which has a nice in-store selection) I reached for a bottle of Casal Garcia Vinho Verde ($10.99). I was reminded of all the wine producers I’ve met who told me they’d never use a screw cap. At Garcia it was unthinkable — after all, it was Portugal, and going screw cap in the land of cork would be sacrilegious.
The classic blue label that covers most of the bottle is now under a matching blue screw cap and it has never looked or tasted better. Slightly pétillant, this literally “green wine” that really means young wine was off-the-charts delicious and perfect for a hot afternoon on the patio. It’s like a gin and tonic and its price is higher than its alcohol content.
In France a number of premier cru, and even grand cru Chablis producers, renowned for their delicate ethereal bouquets, have gone to screw cap to better express the entire flavour spectrum of their sites. Italy’s DOCG laws hamper the use of screw caps, but change is well underway. Again, it’s about preserving the true taste of the wine.
In the end I knew that screw cap wines would survive when I introduced an enthusiastic young wine drinker to her first twist-off New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc in the early 2000s. The moment she cracked her first screw cap she told me she was never going back to pulling corks again. When I suggested there wasn’t near enough choice to do that her reply was, “I’ll stick with this wine until there is.”
We all know how that story turned out.