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Sheila & Bennet Bodenstein

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Cork Closures - Friend or Foe

                 In our history of writing about the field of wine, we have covered almost every aspect of the subject; the grapes, the wine, the glasses to serve it in, to the bottles and even the labels. One area that we have never deemed necessary to cover was the bottle stoppers. We rectify that now.

                 For hundreds of years, stoppers made from cork have been the closure of choice for wine bottles. They worked and worked well, but there were a few problems. A cork, even under the best of conditions, has a life span of only about 30 years. Old wines, even those that were properly stored, requires re-corking every thirty years or so. Natural cork is also subject to myriads of mold and mildew problems which could and would damage the wine in the bottle.

 

                As the demand for wine bottle corks increased over the past few decades, the quality decreased dramatically. With this decrease in quality came a host of problems for the wine makers. It has become so bad that it is estimated that one in ten corks are bad. The result of a bad cork is called “a corked wine.” The flavor and freshness is just not there and the wine will have unpleasant flavors and aromas. By sniffing the wet end of a cork when it has been removed from the bottle, many of the problems that cause a wine to become corked can be discerned. The cork will smell moldy and just not nice, as will the wine. If you should get a bottle of wine that just doesn’t taste right or the cork is moldy, return it. Any reputable restaurant, wine dealer or supermarket will take it back without question.

                Modern science has tried to come to the rescue; well, kind of.  Synthetic closures have entered the marketplace. Synthetic closures have none of the problems that occur with natural cork; but introduced a whole new series of problems of their own. To eliminate the most obvious question about these closures, in almost every case, do not add any chemical or other flavors or aromas to the wine. Problems occur on the bottling line. If these closures are scratched or nicked in any way while being inserted into the bottle, they can let air in and spoil the wine.

 

                Another probable question is the fallacy that the cork must breathe in order to allow the wine to age properly. On most bottling lines, a vacuum is pulled on the bottle prior to the insertion of the cork. This is done so that the closure will not compress the air in the bottle and possibly be pushed out due to back pressure and also to reduce the possibility of air contaminants.

 

During our research, one thing came to the fore: without any question, the best closure for a bottle of wine is a well made metal screw top. Will someone please throw some water on the wine geek who fainted at that last statement? The screw top will seal a wine bottle best, result in less spoilage and will outlast any and all other stoppers, (except glass) by a factor of ten to one. The problem is that there can be nothing less glamorous or more mundane than a screw top. Screw tops were tried with the 1972 Inglenook Cabernet Sauvignon (a premium wine back then) and they failed miserably. The public totally rejected it and even considered the wine to be inferior, which it wasn’t.

 

Today, there is a major drive to return to the screw top. Right now, vintners in the United States and Australia are applying screw tops to many of their better white wines and some of their reds. These screw top sealed premium wines should start hitting our market by the end of this year. The use of these screw tops will allow a wine to live considerably longer, stay fresher and reduce the possibilities of it being corrupted due to a bad closure, the major cause of spoilage in wine.

 

The case for closures is still open and being hotly debated. There are those who fervently believe that without a tree bark cork closure, a wine is not a wine. What do you think?

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No part of this article may be reproduced in any form or by any means, or stored in a database (other than online search indexes) without prior permission of Bennet Bodenstein.

Making copies of any part of this article for any purpose other than your own personal use is a violation of United States copyright laws.