the perennial debate!
Our great friend Denzel at the Simonsig Winery in South Africa paints a lovely picture of opening a bottle of wine, whilst treating his wife to a picnic to celebrate their anniversary, how the theatre of opening the bottle and the pop of the cork is so satisfying and romantic; more so than unscrewing the “stelvin closure” or metal screw cap.
He is right of course; however he also agrees that the screw cap has benefits. So which is the better; cork or screwcap?
This is a debate that has run and run within the wine industry, as well as among consumers. The myth that only cheaper wines are produced with screwcaps, is not necessarily true.
Cork has been used to seal wine bottles for thousands of years. The advantage of cork is that it allows oxygen to enter the bottle. At a low level (close to 1 milligram of oxygen per bottle per year) it helps to remove the sulphites that are sometimes added in the bottling process and is perfect for helping wines develop, soften the “tannins” (those harsh bitter tastes often found in red wine -and of which more in future articles) helping to create more complex flavours.
Cork oak trees are grown primarily in Portugal, and much of the wine cork production takes place there. However, in the wine bottle cork manufacturing process, a mould forms naturally over the cork. It is then treated, and a by product of this treatment is a compound called TCA (2,4,6-trichloroanisole) which affects the cork, causing wines to have a bad smell – known as cork taint. You may have heard the expression “corked wine”: this is wine that has cork taint.
Taint can be attributed to other factors such as the barrels, transport and storage procedures, but it’s usually the cork that takes the blame. The worst corked bottles smell like a wet dog, mould or old damp.
Drinking a corked wine is not going to cause you any physical harm but it is not very pleasant!
Corked wines occur completely randomly, and it is believed that up to 7% of wine can be affected with cork taint – so you may very well come across one.
This explains why so many wine producers started to use screw caps – and not just the lower priced ones. Winemakers were distraught at the thought that their carefully crafted wines were being ruined by bad cork. Not only that, screw caps do keep white wine fresher longer, as they don’t allow air to get into the bottle, which you don’t really want with white wine. The Portuguese cork producers have been working hard to eliminate TCA, and we are now seeing a move back to cork. This is not only because it is a sustainable product, but also because
