Is Virginia Wine Overpriced?

Virginia wine is overpriced.  I hear this refrain often during discussions with some of my local wine friends when asked why they don’t drink more Virginia wine.  Like all wine regions, Virginia does have its share of crappy, overpriced wine, but I feel the ‘good’ Virginia wines provide an excellent value for the dollars spent.

When I hear ‘Virginia wine is overpriced’ I wonder if people are really referring to the value a particular wine provides, or, are they really saying the wine is overpriced solely because it’s from Virginia.  I have a wine friend who has held the opinion that ‘Virginia wine is overpriced‘ as long as I’ve known him.  I believe he thinks Virginia wine is overpriced just because it’s Virginia wine (sound familiar).  To test him – and to prove a point – I setup a mini-blind tasting (3 flights, 3 wines per flight) and my friend selected a Virginia wine as his favorite in two of the three mini-flights as I suspected he would.  I concede that this mini-blind tasting was far from scientific, but it did prove a point – when compared to similar priced wines from more notable regions; Virginia wines match up very well.

The topic of the price of Virginia wine came up during a recent conversation with Andy Regan, winemaker at Jefferson Vineyards that began as a result of a comment by someone on Twitter during a live tasting.  We both lamented about these Virginia wine is overpriced comments, and talked about a comparative tasting at some point. The day after our conversation I received an email from Andy about the tasting – a blind comparative tasting with similar priced wines from across the world and Virginia.

In his initial email, Andy noted that the intent of the tasting would not be about determining the ‘best’ wine in each flight (which would be impossible to do), but more about providing an opportunity to evaluate Virginia wine relative to comparably priced wines from around the world.

As a passionate wine enthusiast and huge advocate of the value and quality of Virginia wine, I jumped at the chance to participate in such a tasting.  In addition to other bloggers including my friends from Swirl, Sip, Snark, Andy had an excellent group of tasters for the event: Bruce Zoecklein, Virginia state enologist and enology Professor at Virginia Tech; Jim Raper, wine writer for The Virginia-Pilot newspaper; Stephanie Williams from flavor Magazine; Stephen Barnard, winemaker at Keswick Vineyards; Kat, also from Keswick; Kath Younger from Kath Eats blog, as well as several other wine enthusiasts.

Stephen Barnard (Keswick Vineyards), Me, Andy Reagan (Jefferson Vineyards)

The tasting included 14 tasters/scorers evaluating each wine on seven criteria – aroma, fruit, acidity, tannin, mouthfeel, finish, and overall complexity along with our opinion on whether or not the wines were priced reasonably based on the quality.  Each taster was also asked to identify the region/country of each wine.  For me, the Virginia and French wines were easy to identify, but I had a more difficult time identifying the wines from California, South Africa and Argentina.

Tasting setup at Jefferson Vineyards barrel room.

Flight One: Pinot Gris (price range of $18 to $22):
Eola Hills Pinot Gris 2009 Oregon
Pollak 2009 Pinot Gris Estate (Virginia)
Jefferson 2009 Pinot Gris  (Virginia)
Charles Schleret 2005 Alsace Pinot Gris (France)
Adelsheim 2009 Pinot Gris Willamette Valley Oregon

Though I am not a fan of Pinot Gris (moonlights as Pinot Grigio in Italy), and typically only drink it by accident or when included in formal tastings such as this one, I gave this flight my all, but couldn’t muster true interest.  All of these wines would definitely be at the very high end of what I would be willing to pay for Pinot Gris/Pinot Grigio. Thankfully there were only five entries in this flight. Finishing at the top of my tasting sheet – the Jefferson 2009 Pinot Gris.  The overall group of 14 tasters scored this flight as follows: 1. Jefferson, 2. Pollak, 3. Eola Hills, 4. Charles Schleret 5. Adelsheim.  The Eola Hills Pinot Gris is the only wine in this flight outside the price range, with a retail price of $13.99.

Flight Two: Viognier (price range from ~$18 to $30)
Jefferson 2009 Viognier Reserve Monticello (Virginia)
Keswick 2009 Viognier Estate Reserve (Virginia)
Francois Villard De Poncins 2006 Condrieu (France)
Blenheim 2009 Viognier (Virginia)
Porter Creek 2007 Viognier Russian River Valley Timbervine Ranch (Calif.)
Yalumba 2009 Viognier (South Australia)
Chateau Camplazens Vin de Pays D’Oc 2007 Viognier (France)
Terra Blanca 2005 Viognier Yakima (Washington State)

As I’ve noted here many times, Viognier could be the future of Virginia white wine (if you happen to disagree, it’s ok, you’ve probably been wrong about other things as well ).  Given the quality of Virginia Viognier, this was the most anticipated flight of the tasting for me, and Virginia did not disappoint.  The Jefferson Viognier Reserve and Blenheim Viognier finished at the top of my score sheet with a slight edge going to the Jefferson.

Though the price range for this flight was roughly $18 to $30, Andy did include a lower and higher priced offering as well.  Interestingly the most expensive Viognier in the flight – the $75 Francois Villard from Condrieu – finished at the bottom on my score sheet, and didn’t fare too much better in overall group scoring.  Though I don’t want to Monday morning quarterback, I would have liked more vintage consistency in this flight, and perhaps another round of eight Viogniers with more regions represented.  I have no doubt Virginia Viognier would still have finished atop a flight of 16 Viogniers as well.  One could argue that some Virginia Viognier may be underpriced relative to Condrieu and California in terms of price-to-quality.  I often wonder why people pay the $50 – $75 price tag for Condrieu for such little quality relative to the price (amazing what a French name on the label will do for rationalizing high price of wine).  The overall group ranked this flight as follows: 1. Jefferson Reserve, 2. Keswick, 3. Porter Creek, 4. Blenheim, 5. Francois Villard Condrieu, 6. Yalumba, 7. Terra Blanca, 8. Ch. Camplazens Vin de Pays d’Oc. Each of the three Virginia Viogniers in this flight were stellar, no surprise they took three of the top four spots.

Viognier Flight

Flight Three: Chardonnay (price range $18 – $29)
Jefferson 2009 Chardonnay Reserve Monticello (Virginia)
Champy 2009 Pouilly Fuisse (France)
Catena 2009 Chardonnay Mendoza (Argentina)
Hamilton Russell 2009 Chardonnay Hemel-en-Aarde Valley (South Africa)

Boring. Snorefest.  I respect the fact that Chardonnay is a global workhorse, but I simply cannot get into this varietal.  I realize there are many amazing Chardonnays throughout the world, but I would not consider any of the wines in this flight ‘amazing’ examples of Chardonnay.  Overall scoring in this flight was very close – group rankings as follows: 1. Jefferson, 2. Tie Hamilton Russell and Champy 4. Catena

After three white flights, we moved on to the much-anticipated reds beginning with Cabernet Franc, followed by Merlot, and finishing with red blends.

Flight Four:  Cabernet Franc (price range $18 – $35)
RAATS 2008 Cabernet Franc Stellenbosch (South Africa)
Jefferson 2008 Cabernet Franc Reserve Monticello (Virginia)
Lang & Reed 2008 Cabernet Franc North Coast (California)
Blenheim 2009 Cabernet Franc (Virginia)
Keswick 2009 Cabernet Franc Monticello (Virginia)
Frederic Mabileau 2005 Saint Nicolas de Bourgueil Eclipse (France)

Like Viognier, Cab Franc thrives here in Virginia so I fully expected the home team to sweep this flight.  When the bottles were revealed, I was surprised by the origins of my top scorer – the RAATS 2008 Cab Franc from South Africa.  In looking through my tasting notes from the last two years and plumbing my memory, I believe this is the first time I’ve had a Cabernet Franc from South Africa, and certainly will not be my last. Finishing second in my ranking was Keswick followed by the Jefferson Reserve.  For our next tasting, this flight should be expanded to include more regions like Chinon and Long Island.  No doubt Virginia Cab Francs would finish at or near the top of an expanded flight.  The overall group ranked this flight as follows:  1. RAATS, 2. Keswick, 3. Jefferson, 4. Frederic Mabileau, 5. Blenheim, 6. Lang and Reed.

Cab Franc Flight

Flight Five: Merlot (price range ~ $20 – $35)
Jefferson 2007 Merlot Reserve Monticello (Virginia)
Thelema 2006 Merlot Stellenbosch (South Africa)
Keswick 2009 Merlot Monticello (Virginia)
Sbragia 2007 Merlot Dry Creek Home Ranch (California)
Di Lenardo 2006 ‘Just Me’ Merlot IGT Venezia Giulia (Italy)
Mauvais Garcon 2006 Bordeaux (France)
Blenheim 2009 Merlot Virginia
Te Awa 2004 Merlot Hawkes Bay (New Zealand)

Considering how the Sideways Effect has impacted Merlot prices in many regions, I worried if Virginia would be able to compete with equally priced Merlots from other regions. Once again Virginia wines showed well when tasted alongside similar priced wines from around the world.   The Sbragio Merlot from Dry Creek Valley was my top scoring merlot followed by the Keswick Merlot. The overall group ranked this flight as follows: 1. Di Lenardo, 2. Keswick, 3. Thelema, 4. Jefferson Reserve, 5. Sbragia, 6. Mauvais Garcon, 7.Blenheim, 8. Te Awa.

 

Sniffing - Merlot flight. Jim Raper of The Virginian-Pilot to my left.

Flight Six: Bordeaux Blends (price range ~$24 – $34)
Bodegas Benegas Don Tiburcio 2006 Mendoza (Argentina)
Keswick 2007 Heritage Monticello (Virginia)
Chappellet 2008 Mountain Cuvee Napa (California)
Jefferson 2007 Meritage Monticello (Virginia)
Mulderbosch Faithful Hound 2006 (South Africa)
Chateau Cambon La Pelouse 2005 Haut Medoc (Bordeaux, France)

Bordeaux type blends are yet another area Virginia is excelling and turning out great wines at reasonable price points.  The only exception to the $24 – $34 price range was the Don Tiburcio at $13, which finished as my top rated wine of the flight.  I liked the character of this wine – eucalyptus and dark fruits along with light vegetal components throughout. Excellent QPR at only $13/bottle.  Tied for second were the Keswick Heritage and Jefferson Meritage. The overall group ranked this flight as follows:  1. Keswick Heritage, 2. Chappellet, 3. Jefferson Meritage, 4. Bodegas Benegas Don Tiburcio, 5. Mulderbosch, 6. Cambon La Pelouse.

* In the spirit of full disclosure I should note that I was able to pick out the Virginia wines – from familiarity of the aroma/flavor profile, or, perhaps a good random guess – in each of the blind flights, with only one exception.  It’s possible, but not likely, that my familiarity of these wines subconsciously weighted my scores in Virginia’s favor.

Once the wines were unbagged and the scores were tallied – Virginia wine was the clear winner (not that this tasting was about winners or losers)! Virginia wine finished atop three flights on my score sheet, and near the top in every flight. In overall scoring, a Virginia wine finished atop four of the six flights.  Not only did a Virginia wine receive the most votes in four of the six flights, Virginia wines also consistently finished in 2nd or 3rd place in most flights.

I realize this one tasting does not prove that Virginia wine is reasonably priced or overpriced or whatever.  There is no way to definitively conclude that Virginia wine is overpriced, or not, because we all have different economic circumstances that determine our wine budgets; we have different preferences, and of course different definitions of value.    What I hope this tasting proves to those who feel ‘Virginia wine is overpriced’ is that Virginia wine can go head-to-head with similar priced wines from more notable regions.

Having taken part in many blind tastings, this was one of the best I’ve participated in – a big THANK YOU to Andy for organizing and hosting an amazing event! I appreciate being included in the tasting with such a great group of wine enthusiasts.  Photo Credit:  All photos courtesy of Kat Schornberg Barnard – thanks Kat!

 

A big ol thanks to Andy for bringing out the great Riedel Th:Jefferson inscribed stemware for the tasting. Nice!

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Virtual Tasting – Discover DC’s Wine Country

Virginia Wine Bloggers Unite to Promote DC’s Wine Country – the Wines of Loudoun County

Virginia wine bloggers – Frank from DrinkWhatYouLike.com, Va Wine Diva & Grape Envy Guy from SwirlSipSnark.com, and Paul & Warren from VirginiaWineTime.com – along with the Virginia Wine Board and Loudoun County wineries will host the first ever TasteLive! event dedicated to showcasing the wines of Loudoun County, VA.

TasteLive! is the world’s premiere online wine and beer tasting community that leverages the increasingly powerful social media tools of Twitter, Facebook, Posterous, and other services to create a community that brings together consumers, bloggers, press, suppliers, and winemakers from across the world to taste and discuss wine virtually.

On Thursday, December 9, the wines of Loudoun County will take center stage in a TasteLive! virtual wine tasting dedicated to showcasing the wines of DC’s Wine Country – Loudoun County.  Wine bloggers and wine enthusiasts throughout the US will come together online at 8pm Eastern Time to taste & tweet about the wines of Loudoun County.  This event will serve as an introduction to Virginia wine for several participants and is a prelude to the 2011 Wine Bloggers Conference which will be held in Charlottesville, VA in July.

Located just 25 miles from Washington, DC, Loudoun County – referred to as DC’s Wine Country – is home to 27 wineries and tasting rooms organized into four clusters sprinkled throughout bucolic countryside.

This tasting features wines from five different Loudoun County wineries, and winemakers from each will be joining in the virtual discussion.  The five featured Loudoun wineries and wines are:

Notaviva Vineyards
2009 Ottantotto Viognier
Part of the Loudoun Heights cluster, Notaviva Vineyards is one of Loudoun’s newest wineries. Husband and wife team Stephen and Shannon Mackey were brought together by their love of music, which is expressed further through their wines.  Notaviva is from the Italian nota – music note and viva – with life.  In keeping with their love of music and wine, each Notaviva flagship wine is named after musical terms to represent the emotions they inspire.
Follow Notaviva on Twitter: @Notaviva

Tarara Winery
2009 Nevaeh White
Part of the Potomac wine cluster, Tarara Winery is a terroir-driven winery crafting artisanal, hand crafted wines to best showcase their vineyards through single vineyard blends capturing the essence of the unique sites and classic varietals around Virginia.
Follow Tarara on Twitter: @TararaWinery

Breaux Vineyards
2007 Cabernet Franc Reserve
Part of the Loudoun Heights cluster, Breaux Vineyards overlooks the beautiful valley between the Blue Ridge and Short Hill Mountains. The 404-acre Breaux estate has over 100 acres planted in 18 different grape varieties.  Be sure to check out the Breaux Vineyards introduction video at VisitLoudoun.org.
Follow Breaux Vineyards on Twitter: @BreauxVineyards

8 Chains North
2008 Furnace Mountain Red Reserve
8 Chains North Winery, located in Waterford, Virginia, showcases handcrafted wines made from Loudoun County grapes.  ‘At 8 Chains North we spend 8 intense months in our vineyards on the Potomac River and in the Short Hill Mountains of Loudoun County, allowing us to draw out the very best of every vintage.’
Follow 8 Chains North on Twitter:  @8ChainsNorth

North Gate Vineyard
2008 Petit Verdot
North Gate Vineyard is situated in on approximately 26 acres in the northwest part of Loudoun County, Virginia. Nestled against the eastern base of the Short Hill mountains (foothills to the Blue Ridge), North Gate Vineyard produces high quality wine grapes for its own set of wines as well as other wineries in Virginia. Husband and wife team Mark and Vicki Fedor have been growing grapes since 2002 and have been part of the winemaking scene in Loudoun since 2003.
Follow North Gate on Twitter: @NorthGateWines

We’re sure many of you are fans of Loudoun County wine, these wineries, and even these specific wines, so we hope that you’ll join us for this tasting.  A major benefit of a virtual wine tasting is that everyone can become a participant. You don’t need to have all the bottles to join in – 1 or 2 would work quite well.

Of course, you can also just tweet along (or follow the tweet stream if you’re shy).  You can do this by logging into the TasteLive! Platform or following the twitter stream for the hashtag #vawine through your favorite twitter platform (e.g., TweetDeck).  If you don’t tweet, you can also follow the twitter stream by searching on the hashtag #vawine from the twitter home page since you do not need to have a twitter account to look at tweets.

Please join us; this would be a great time to gather your wine friends and celebrate the wines of Loudoun County.   After all, how often do you have the opportunity to chat about wines with both the winemakers and some of your favorite bloggers all at the same time?

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Questions, Comments, Complaints, Random Observations? Contact Me Here

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The Case Against Screw Tops

There are many polarizing topics in the wine industry – the three-tier distribution system, indigenous vs. designer yeasts, new vs. old world, and of course real cork vs. crappy synthetic cork vs. screw top closures.

One notable trend here in Virginia is the growing use of screw top closures.  As of right now, I believe there are just two Virginia wineries that use screw top closures for all of their wines – Blenheim Vineyards and Tarara Winery – but there are several other wineries, like Lovingston Winery, moving in that direction.

I don’t much care for the term screw top (or screw cap) – instead I prefer the term ‘rotating closure.’  I first heard the term ‘rotating closure’ from someone at Keswick Vineyards, but I’ve now assumed full credit as the originator of the term.

I have had the ‘traditional cork vs. rotating closure‘ discussion with a number of winemakers, and the most often cited reason for the use of rotating closures is the fact that wines with screw cap closures are not susceptible to cork taint.   Although I have not found an absolute, definitive source for the percentage of wines that are corked, a number consistently thrown around is 3% – 5%.  This is Bovine Excrement!  As an avid opener of wine bottles, my personal experience is no more than 1% of the wine bottles with traditional cork closures that I open are corked.

Though this post began as a rant against the use of screw top closures for red wine, it has morphed in to multi-part series to address both sides of this topic.  In part I of this two part series, I present the opinions of several respected winemakers who are using screw top closures.  Part II in this series will provide my opinions and those of winemakers who prefer traditional cork closures.

My opinions on this subject are simple – I like cork. I don’t like rotating closures. I prefer my red wines sealed with a cork closure.  Cork closures represent a long-held tradition that I like, and there is something romantic to the sound of a cork being pulled from a bottle of wine.  I personally do not feel there is enough real research (i.e. – aging) to opine on the ability of screw top closures to really allow a wine to age gracefully.

In today’s post – the case for screw top closures – I’ve asked three Virginia wineries that are ahead of the screw top trend to weigh in on this subject: Kirsty from Blenheim Vineyards, Jordan from Tarara Winery, and Stephanie from Lovingston Winery.

Since Blenheim Vineyards is just one of two Virginia wineries that uses screw top closures for all of their wines, I asked winemaker Kirsty Harmon to share her thoughts on why she uses all screw top closures:

At Blenheim we use screw cap closures because of consistency and quality. Screwcap closures deliver the wine in a more consistent manner. The fact that screw caps are usually cheaper than corks ($0.18-$0.25), look cool, and are easier to open is bonuses.

I feel that wines are delivered to consumers more reliably and consistently when screw cap closures are used. Since corks are natural objects, each and every cork is different and will let an unpredictable and different amount of oxygen pass through it into the wine. Even though it might not be obvious at first, as the wines age, each bottle will become more and more different and not necessarily taste like what the winemaker intended. As most winemakers will agree, we are perfectionists and all work hard to get the wine to a point we are happy with – it seems kind of crazy to me that it is the cork that will ultimately dictate what a wine tastes like.

Corks can also harbor a compound called TCA (2,4,6 -Trichloroanisole) that can make the wine taste musty and moldy. There is no way to predict which corks have this problem and there is no way to totally avoid the problem if corks are used. While using good corks and reliable suppliers can minimize the occurrence of TCA, there is still a chance that this problem will exist.

I use screw caps on both red and white wines. All of the good things that happen during aging, like softening of tannins happen without oxygen. While the wines at Blenheim are made to be drank young, I would still use screw caps if I were going to let the wine age for a while. When I was in New Zealand, I met with numerous winemakers who were all eager to show me comparison tastings of the same wine from the same vintage bottled with either cork or screw cap. Each and every time, the wine bottled using screw caps was brighter, tasted cleaner, and a better expression of the fruit. The wines bottled with cork were tired, dull and overall less interesting. The comparison favored screw caps on everything from Riesling, to Chardonnay and Pinot noir. It was a pretty dramatic difference, and one that convinced me without a doubt to stay away from corks.

I don’t think that screw caps will be the best solution to close wine bottles in the future, but for me, they are the best solution right now.

Blenheim Vineyards
31 Blenheim Farm
Charlottesville, Virginia 22902

Although I do agree with Kirsty that screw caps will not be the last solution, I do disagree with her that these annoying little closures look cool.  I personally do not like the look of rotating closures (just one mans opinions).  I would certainly like to participate in a comparative tasting of cork vs. screw cap to ‘experience’ the difference between the two.

Last weekend, I visited Tarara Winery along with Paul and Warren from Virginia Wine Time, and the use of screw top closures was a topic of much discussion.  Jordan has made a number of wine-related changes at Tarara, one of which was converting to 100% screw top closures for all wines.

The fact is that every closure has issues and benefits.  I prefer Screw tops because their issues can be dealt with in the cellar.  I know when I bottle with screw tops that it will create a very anaerobic environment which if not careful can create reductive characters similar to Hydrogen Sulfite.  That is created by a lack of oxygen, which will create the sulfites in a wine to reduce down as opposed to bind in the simplest terms.  Reduced sulfites smell bad.  So, here at Tarara the actions we take are simple – we have a more oxidative wine making style with multiple rackings of our big reds and mostly barrel ferments on our whites.  This helps to climatize and bind any unstable sulfites in the wine prior to bottling so they have less risk of reducing.  We also simply don’t add as much sulfites to our wines and try to stay away from any later additions close to bottling.

I can talk about the advantages and disadvantages all day to almost any closure, but for our wines that have heavy extraction on the reds and bigger style whites I prefer screw tops.  Most of the wines I have encountered issues with are varietals like Sauvignon Blanc after a year or two because most of the winemaking is very anaerobic.

I don’t thing there is a problem with using any closure for the right wine.  I think Synthetic corks, Zorks, or Tetra Packs are great for a wine that is meant to be consumed young (like less then 2 years, less then 1 for tetra pack).  Since 95% of all wine is consumed inside 24 hours of purchase, these closures tend to make a lot of sense.  I do like to think that our wines will age gracefully (many of them anyway) and that is why I use screw tops.  If the elevage is correctly done (ours is also quite long before bottling) then you should be safe and the wine will age very well.  They will age differently however, but as I said on Saturday, any two wines with cork will age differently.  There is no consistency.  I do also like a lot of the glass closures, but they are hard to open for some, expensive and you require a staff person from their company to be here for the first couple bottlings to ensure they are placed properly.

As far as other pieces that come into play, including – price, ease of opening, process, it is all over the board.  Screw tops are more expensive then synthetics, Zorks, but cheaper than high quality 49mm corks with custom tin caps.  Here is the average pricing for what you will see to close a bottle:

• Synthetic Corks $0.05-$0.10 each
• Zorks $0.25 each – largely dependent on volume and incredibly labor intensive to place
• PVC Capsules – $0.02-$0.05 each
• Tin Capsules – $0.12-$0.20 each
• Traditional Corks – $0.20 – $1.00 depending on size and sorting procedures.  Buying corks is actually quite complicated, but it is all for aesthetics and has nothing to do with TCA risks.
• Screw-Tops – $0.35-$0.45
• Agglomerate Corks – $0.05 each or so with huge TCA issues. – Note: Diam corks look like Agglomerate corks but are apparently TCA free, I haven’t done too much work with them.

A cool thing that we have noticed as a cost savings is that our labor per bottle is about 20 seconds less for opening.  Might not seem like much but the value at the end of the year is a few thousand dollars.

Tarara Winery
13648 Tarara Lane
Leesburg, VA 20176-5236

Lovingston Winery is one of the Virginia wineries using screw top closures for just their white wines as of right now, but will soon include reds as well.  I recently had the chance to catchup with Stephanie Wright, one of the proprietors of Lovingston to solicit her thoughts on the use of screw top closures and why their winery is expanding the use of the closures to their red wines.

We currently use screw caps for all white wines – our Wahoo White, Seyval Blanc (currently waiting for our new vines to give us a harvest), and Petit Manseng.  We don’t use them for reds as yet, but we’re producing a red this March that will use them.

We have several reasons for using screw tops. First, the way we make our whites – all stainless, with occasionally some residual sugar, and very refreshing – makes screw tops a no-brainer.  We want the freshness to remain as long as possible on our wines, and do not really want them to change at all in the first year we’re trying to sell them/consume them.  In fact, on our Seyval and the Wahoo White, we have captured a little CO2 at bottling on purpose for that slight textural, fizzy quality, and the screw cap maintains that aspect quite well.

Second, the price aspect is huge; especially since we use the highest quality corks possible and tin capsules in our reds.  The price difference of those two items vs. a single screw top is significant, and one of the reasons we’re trying screw caps out on one of our new reds being released in early 2011.  This new red is going to have a small amount of residual sugar and be quite fruity as well as retail for somewhere around the $10 range.  Using a traditional cork closure for this wine does not make sense for this wine since this wine will not be for aging.

Third, screw tops are gaining ground in popularity with people in the restaurant industry.  I have discussed it quite a bit with wait staff in the past few months during random conversations, and they love the simple twist off of a bottle rather than having to go through the show with uncorking a bottle tableside.  And if you’re a bartender in a crowded bar/restaurant, and someone orders a glass of wine, it takes a lot less time and effort to unscrew and re-screw that bottle than it does with a cork.

As far as quality control, we had an instance in our first year of bottling where we bought two different levels of corks – the top end and the second tier – one for our higher end reds and one for our more mainstream, less expensive ones.  We had major issues with the second tier cork…they were too dry at bottling (although the cork company denied that) and would either snap in two halfway out of the bottle or they never made it into the bottle in the first place and we discovered several cases worth of uncorked, yet encapsulated, wines.  No fun.  From that point on, we have only used the top tier corks for safety’s sake.  Thus, when it comes to price differences in using all cork or some screw top, especially for a $10 wine, we can save money without sacrificing quality.  We have yet to have any issue with our screw tops.

Lovingston Winery
85 Freshwater Cove Lane
Lovingston, VA 22949

Stephanie makes a great point for screw tops in terms of ease of use in a restaurant.  This is a biggie to consider for those wineries interested in more restaurant business.  I wonder if restaurants consider rotating closures a benefit? (I’ll leave this to other peeps looking for content ideas.)

Although I have a great deal of respect for both Kirsty at Blenheim, and Jordan at Tarara, I do question their decision to use screw tops for 100% of their wines – especially reds.  I will certainly keep buying wines from both wineries, but I’m not on board with the use of screw tops for red wines (yet).  Perhaps we can convince Stephanie at Lovingston to bottle this new red in screw top and cork for an interesting comparative tasting.

I would like to thank Stephanie from Lovingston, Kirsty from Bleheim and Jordan from Tarara for providing their thoughts and opinions on this subject.  The next post in this series will provide my opinions and those of winemakers who prefer traditional cork closures.

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