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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Drink What YOU Like 
Great article, and you are right, it can a highly polarizing topic.People Randall Grahm of Bonny Doon, making wine for 30 years, would defend screw caps to his last breath.
In fact these days I don’t find many winemakers that won’t at least concede some benefit to screw caps.
I rampaged against screw caps for a long time, but have become comfortable with them, especially for whites and young reds.
There are a very few that are decent looking, in Paso Villa Creek, Kinero use a type this looks quite good and people always comment on. Happy to email a pic.
I also really like the new glass tops, but cost and bottling line issues seem to be preventing them from taking off.
Cork Taint IS receding as more than a few have commented. And the cork industry, faced with a growing exodus, has rallied and committed to reducing TCA…although even if its down to 1%, how mad is someone when they open their only/last special bottle that can’t be replaced, only to find it corked.
I’d be lying if I said there is a romanticism to corks I will never get over, but these days I don’t judge, or let it have any influence on my opinions; there are too many people with vast experience supporting whose opinions I respect and listen carefully too.
William: Thanks for stopping by to comment. Agree that the ‘cork industry’ has stepped up in terms of working to reduce (never can eliminate) TCA. Any corked bottled sucks, but it’s a risk I will continue to assume for my traditional cork preference. Although I too have big respect for Randall Grahm as well as for many other proponents of screw tops, I still let the ‘cork romanticism’ affect my buying habits. Cheers!
Thanks for this interesting post; I’m already looking forward to part 2.
I also enjoy the cork. I like the experience of opening a bottle of wine with my trusty corkscrew. (I hate the synthetics, however.) That said, I’m open to change. While I still prefer a cork, I don’t shy away from a “rotating closure.” (love that, by the way)
While I am a major sceptic at heart, there does seem to be research that wine can cellar under screw cap (Australia seems to be leading the way with this work). It will age differently than under cork, but two bottles sealed with cork also age differently (and different isn’t necessarily better or worse – just different).
That said, I still tend to prefer to buy reds for cellaring that have natural cork closures. (I’ve yet to try Jordan’s reds, so he may well change my mind). However, I’ve come to really appreciate quality screw top wine when I travel since I always forget to pack a TSA approved corkscrew and try to fly carry-on only, and I really don’t need to buy any more.
Now I just need to find one of those glass closures William mentioned – I’ve heard of them, but I’ve never encountered one…
VWD: Thanks for commenting… As someone who travels frequently, I must admit that I too appreciate a screw top closure when I’m on the road (if I happen to forget my TSA approved corkscrew). I wish there was a practical way to compare ‘cork vs. screw top’ wine…
I just saw some of those glass closures at a wine festival, appropriately Glass House Winery uses them 🙂 http://www.glasshousewinery.com/index.html
They looked pretty nice!
Good piece. Interestingly, while many folks have some experience with corked wine, reduction under screwcap remains largely unknown to folks. They cannot readily identify a reduced wine. R. Graham freely admits examples of his wines, all under screwcap, suffer from this fault. Yet little guidance is offered the consumer as to how to recognize it. Not surprising. But deeply cynical.
BTW, cork taint is not quite an accurate couplet. The fault can originate in the winery itself: Poor hygiene, recycled cardboard, wood pallets, and barrels themselves can all be sources. That cork is solely blamed is a testimony to the effectiveness of the screwcap lobby. Why let scientific evidence get in the way of sales?
Hi Ken – thanks for stopping by to comment – appreciate your input on this topic. You make a great point about reduction not being widely unknown – something that is rarely (if ever ) talked about. I do plan to address reduction as part of making a case against screw tops in Part II of this series. Cheers!
I will cast my vote in favor of screw caps every time, at least for wines intended for near-term consumption. I have encountered more cork-tainted wines than I could possibly count, both as a consumer & in my professional capacity as a wholesale wine salesperson. For me, the most telling argument in favor of screw caps (& other alternative closures)is that the wines taste exactly as they did in the cellars, even after a trans-ocean journey, trucking, & warehousing. This has frequently (no exaggeration) not been my experience with cork finished wines.
I’m still uncertain how I feel about long-term cellaring of wines under screw cap, mostly because I’ve never cellared any!
So, to sum up: Screw cap = good; other alternative closures = effective but sometimes annoying; Cork = meh
Mike – I’m glad you weighed in on this post. As a member of the wholesale trade, you have a very unique perspective in that you probably open more bottles than 99% of wine enthusiasts. You raise an interesting point about screw tops tasting ‘exactly as they did in the cellars.’ Jordan at Tarara also made this same remark during our discussion with him on Saturday morning. I would like to test this. Perhaps tasting the same a year from now as it did in the cellar is a good thing in some cases, but I’m of the opinion that many wines do improve in the bottle, behind a traditional cork. It would be interesting to hear from someone who has aged (for several years) screw top wines.
Thanks again for sharing your perspective on this subject!
Frank you crack me up! Great post that is NOT Bovine Excrement! This makes me think they should change that Jimmy Buffet song to “Why Don’t We Get Drunk And Rotate”
Frank: I love the post, but you have probably caught on now that I am fairly stubborn and will work to make sure that screw tops gets the last word. I can comment on several of the issues raised above. Reduction is the flaw that comes from screw-tops (if not made properly for going into a screw-top) and it is caused buy reducing sulfites as stated above from lack of oxygen. This can be solved with cellar practices to minimize the risk. The published percentage of screw-top wines with this issue is 2.3%. The problem is that it is not evenly weighed across the board like cork. If a wine from any winery shows this flaw, then it is likely the entire vintage of that wine is flawed. Whereas, if a wine is tasted to be fine under screw-top, it should remain consistent for that vintage. It is not closure to closure varience like cork, it is wine to wine. Far more stressful for the winemaker!!! The flaw smells almost like fresh garbage bags at the lowest extent or almost a faint smell of sewage back-up and at the highest end of the spectrum it will be over-taken by rotton egg character. That is what I meant by hydrogen sufite. Regardless, these are as much winemaking flaws as they are closure.
TCA can be a problem in the cellar as can TBA which has similar outcomes. TCA comes from chlorinated taint and TBA from Bromine. At Tarara now use only plastic pallets in the winery, our hoses and gaskets are all stored in a seperate building, we have no wood anything including brooms, mops, etc all have steel handles. Our barrels that are 2008 or new are in a seperate warehouse and no pentratable rubbers or any woods are allowed to be introduced to our cave in order to eleviate any TCA or TBA concerns. TCA and TBA in the cellar can also be treated prior to release with certain filter pads (very expensive) or half and half cream. It would be irresponsible for any winemaker to release a wine that shows any TCA or TBA prior to release, and all of our wines are tested. I kind of feel we have to because I would have some serious explaining to do if we had corked wune in a screwtop. The problem normally will come to wineries from bottle suppliers since the bottles are packed on wood pallets often manufactured in Mexico. To cross the border they need to be sterilized and is usually done with Bromine Bombs since it is cheap and easy. If that pallet ever then gets a mold it can quickly turn to TBA and spread like wildfire.
As far as romance and tradition. I just can’t figure it out. Around the same time as cork was introduced in the wine industry, most wines were made in Clay Amphorae or the then oh so modern concrete tanks. Ironically this is how cellar taint also cam rampant because concrete and clay are very porous and new cleaning solutions were chlorinated causing mass issues as explained above. But the romance of a wine cellar is this beautiful amphorae, and concrete tanks in dim lighting surrounded by old stained oak barrels and a french man talking with a beautiful accent with classical music in the background and candle lit chandeliers. Today you walk into a cellar and you will see overhead bay lighting to try to get as much light as possible to analyse wine, massive stainless steel tanks (incredibly modern, not much older then screw-tops) with temperature controls, heat exchangers, ozone generaters and a cocky winemaker wearing a Rolling Stones hoodie listening to heavy rock (this isn’t what Jon and I do at all?!?). If we want to look at tradition and romance, let’s look at the whole idea of wine. Everything in wine has changed and there are more options then ever to increase the quality of the product through knowledge and availability. Why would we stop with the very last thing to touch the wine and alter every investment that came before then? The wine industry sadly is not like any other. We have new technologies every year to help make a better and more efficient product for the the end consumer. If I have a chance to buy a wine I am laying down for a special occacsion, I am absolutely going screw top whenever possible. Many Australian wineries will offer a choice in their cellar door, and everytime I took screwtops. When I go to open them, I now have a sense of relief that my anniversary, or birthday wine will be OK and I won’t have to scramble for another lesser bottle because the wine i was so excited about was corked.
Sorry for my rant, but as I said I am pretty stubborn.
Jordan Harris – Tarara Winery
“Rotating closure”? “Bovine Excrement”? Euphemisms are not your friends, Frank! Don’t trust them!
I’m on the fence regarding cork. Having read Taber’s book I can see both sides of the argument, and while I love all things shiny and new and science-y, there’s also something about popping a cork that you can’t replicate any other way. Wineries know that, too. I seem to recall we just opened a wine that looked like it would have a regular, cork closure until we peeled back the foil to reveal a screwcap. Sonofa… they didn’t even have the decency to sneak in a rotating closure!
p.s.- call them Clockwise Oriented Rotational Klosures. It’s more confusing that way.
Great post, Frank!
GEG: Thanks for your input on this post. To start… what’s a euphemism? That’s like 4 syllables. I stop at 3… 🙂 I just included Taber’s book in my recent Amazon order… I need to read.
I like that term… consider that my personally copyrighted material now… 😉 Cheers!
Frank,
Presumably there is no way to sway you on this. So I’ll just state for the record that I feel very strongly in favour of alternate closures. ROTE (roll on tamper evident ie screwcap), Vinolok and DIAM.
In Australia only about 6-8% of wines are currently sealed with natural cork. All the rest use screwcap (over 80%) or DIAM. The argument has been won.
The oldest reds in my cellar under screwcap are from 2001 and are wonderful. Likewise with whites and perhaps even more emphatically.
The big issue I have with cork, is that a perfect cork is fine. But there are few of these. The cork is the perfect embodiment of chaos theory. Small variations cause big changes. I agree with the generalisation, that no 2 cork sealed wines are the same. Whilst some may find this variation charming, I find it very disconcerting and unaaceptable. If I buy a dozen bottles of a particular wine – I want to know that the wine I am tasting is different from the last one I tried – because of age and age alone. Not some lottery related to the natural variation in a closure.
I love corks, I collect them and I have a beautiful cork screw, but I love wine more and for me this means I prefer screwcaps and DIAM.
Hello Edward: I hope all is well down ‘unda.
I appreciate your thoughts on this subject. You make an excellent point about ‘cork being the perfect embodiment of chaos theory.’ Perhaps I’m aromatically dyslexic, but I am ‘OK’ with some small bottle to bottle variation, although I’m not convinced that cork is fully the root cause of this variation. I like the quirkiness/difference/nuances of wine – for me this can mean the bottle of ’02 Breaux Merlot Reserve that I opened last month can taste slightly different than the ’02 Breaux Merlot Reserve I open tonight. Unless one is turned (TCA, etc.), I’m ok with the nuances from bottle to bottle.
Plus, I just like collecting the corks with the intent of someday using them for something… 😉
Thanks again for commenting!
Frank, sometime you will have to come back over this way and I will have to open some older wines with screw-tops. Stangely they are mostly Aussie as well.
Edward: You mention having some 2001’s under screwtop. Not necessarily screw-top related, but any from Margaret River. I have a bunch on 01 and 02 Cabs from Western Australia and just trying to decide if now is the time. Mostly Moss Wood, Woodlands “Kevin”, Cape Mentelle, Sandleford Prendeville and Gralyn. Only have a couple bottles so am trying to get them at the perfect time.
I too, as a wine selling professional have opened many a cork tainted bottle. Not much romance there. Also, having managed a few tasting rooms, I can tell you that not all wine pouring salespeople have the same capacity for identifying corked wines. And not all corked wines are equally corked. Sometimes the difference is subtle, sometimes very gross. The problem occurs when a sales person has poured through most of a bottle of tainted wine, oblivious to the problem. And the customer often leaves thinking that what they just sampled was a terrible wine. No sale. No romance there, either. Finally, think it through – what other industry would stick to a 13th century closure to preserve their (sometimes very precious) product, when there exists 21st century solutions that are both superior and cost effective. Especially when it is a known fact that the old fashioned method will cause ruin to a certain percentage of said product? That said, the romance will (for me anyway) always be INSIDE the bottle, not in the tree bark that may well be ruining the wine. It broke my heart when I removed the cork on a magnum of 2000 Qupe Hillside Select Syrah for my son’s wedding rehearsal party and it was undrinkable. As I had been saving the bottle over 7 years, there was no way to replace it, either. My only reservation on this subject is this: instead of corkage, will restaurants now have to charge us “screwage”?
As an aside, re: your comment that, “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.”
Tracking the number of corked wines opened at the California State Fair’s Commercial Wine Competition over a number of years consistently came up with an 8-10% figure. As a Judge, I can attest to those numbers.
That said, even the top manufacturers of cork admit to a rate-of-taint of 3-5%. I know of no other source that has ever claimed in print a rate-of-taint of <1%. I can only conclude that you are either very fortunate, or some may have passed by unnoticed.