Pulling the cork is part of the romance of drinking wine. But do screw caps raise standards? Joe Breen reports
You have just ordered an indecently expensive bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc at your favourite restaurant. You sit back to chat with your nearest and dearest while the waiter brings the bottle to your table. She shows it with a flourish, but - gasp - her hand doesn't quite cover the fact that the bottle has a screw top. It's too late to stop, so you mutter assent, and in a flicker she cracks the cap and rolls the neck of the bottle down her arm, opening the screw cap in the process. The wine tumbles into the glasses, and the world returns to normal.
The scene tells us much about our ambivalence to screw caps and about how their supporters in the wine industry are thinking up ways of easing the transition from cork. Pulling a cork is part of the romance and ritual of drinking wine, but screw caps are making serious inroads into cork's dominance, despite the popular notion that screw top equals cheap.
It's a complex issue, involving both science and culture. The need to confront cultural preconceptions is displayed by the flashy roll-the-bottle-down-the-sleeve opening, which was demonstrated in Dublin recently by Alastair Maling of New Zealand's respected Villa Maria Estate winery. The gist of his argument is that his company wants a consistent product. He wants to know that the wine he has made, for good or for bad, is the wine that the retailer sells and, most importantly, the wine that the consumer drinks.
Maling says that cork results in one or two bottles in 20 being faulty, because, being made from the bark of a tree, cork is prone to mould. This leads to a chemical infection known as 2,4,6-trichloranisole, or TCA, a compound that may exist as part of the growing tree or creep into the production process when cork is badly stored or when raw cork is washed in chlorine solution.
Whatever the route, says Maling, "when the tainted cork contacts the wine, it goes off - sometimes marginally, sometimes completely", resulting in corked wine. (Cork also allows occasional random oxidation, by sometimes letting oxygen into a bottle.) He says that screw caps:
• eliminate cork taint
• eliminate random oxidation
• make wine taste fresher and livelier
• prolong and control ageing
• are easy to open
• allow bottles to be stored horizontally or vertically
• can be resealed for convenience
• reassure drinkers that their wine will be in pristine condition when they pour it.
(And, of course, if you find yourself with a bottle of wine but no corkscrew, you don't have a problem.)
It is a case that Maling has to make, as Villa Maria Estate uses screw caps for 99 per cent of its wine. The bulk of New Zealand's wine industry is going the same way, for both whites and reds (see panel).
Some argue that Maling's figures for corked wine are little more than estimates; others point out that TCA can come from sources other than cork, such as poor winery hygiene. His response is that, all things being equal - in other words, even if everything is working as it should - it is unacceptable that cork can still result in up to one in 10 bottles going bad. "Would Sony Music or their customers put up with 5 to 10 per cent of their CD recordings being fuzzy?"
He also agrees that it is too early to say for sure how screw caps affect bottle ageing, but he is confident that the results will favour caps over corks. One of the reasons why New Zealand wineries have been so quick to embrace screw caps, he says, is that they feel they received particularly poor cork over the years. So far Stelvin screw tops, which emulate the look of the foil covers on cork-stopped bottles, have cornered the local market, despite being more expensive than best-quality cork. (The price should come down as production increases.)
Maling brought a few samples of Villa Maria Estate bottles with him. Some of the wines were identical except for their closures, so we could see if there was any difference in taste between those with corks and those with screw caps. It was here that the case for screw tops became even stronger. Villa Maria Estate's 2003 Sauvignon Blanc was distinctly fresher and more vibrant with a screw cap than with a cork. The same was true of the Chardonnay Cellar Selection 2002 and the Chardonnay Private Bin 2002. The screw cap Pinot Noir 2002 appeared brighter, more concentrated and more complex than its cork-closed version.
Maling quotes James Laube of Wine Spectator: "Once the industry owns up to the real facts - the staggering number of corked wines and the obvious superiority of screw caps - the game will be over." They are bullish sentiments, but the cork industry is sure to believe that there will be a few more twists and turns before this game is over.
How the rest of New Zealand is joining in
It is not only major New Zealand operations such as Villa Maria Estate that are adopting the screw top. Many smaller high-end wineries are also doing it in their search for consistent excellence.
One group of them is represented on this side of the world by the New Zealand Wine Distribution Company. Its managing director, 34-year-old Hayden Johnston, has a mission: he wants wine drinkers to wake up to the glories of the Central Otago wine-producing area, in the southeast of New Zealand's South Island.
Among the producers he featured at a recent Dublin tasting was Mt Difficulty, a company named after the mountain that overlooks its vineyards. As well as the Bottles of the Week listed below, Mt Difficulty makes a rich Chardonnay and other white varietals, such as Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc. Its limited release Target Gully Pinot Noir 2003, from a single vineyard producing only 400 cases in a good year, is especially memorable. These hand-crafted wines are not cheap. A combination of hard terrain, high costs and small harvests make them premium purchases.
Other wines in Johnston's stable, such as Olssens Riesling, and Unison, from Hawke's Bay, are also impressive. And soon he will have his own wine to add to the line-up, when Hayden's Block, his Otago vineyard, comes on stream under the guidance of the winemaker Carol Bunn. And, yes, it will use screw tops.
Bottles of the week
Mt Difficulty Pinot Noir 2001, 14%, about €33 This doesn't have quite the supple structure or density of fruit as the 2003 vintage, which won't reach shops for a few weeks, but it remains an impressive wine (as it should be at its price). Its bitter-sweet dark-chocolate flavours combine well with a lean, silky texture and a velvet finish. From the Corkscrew, Chatham Street, Dublin; Bin No 9, Goatstown, Dublin; McCabes Wines, Blackrock and Foxrock, Co Dublin; Brechin Watchorn Wine, Ranelagh, Dublin; World Wide Wines, Waterford.
Mt Difficulty Pinot Gris 2004, 14%, €24.95 Bursting with gooseberry, tempered by a subtle mineral aroma, this well-balanced wine offers inviting, rounded acidity and a full, mildly tingling finish. Lip-smackingly delicious. From the Wine & Beer Warehouse, Stillorgan, Co Dublin.
Villa Maria Private Bin Sauvignon Blanc 2004, 13.5%, €14 Fresh and vivacious, this typically well-made wine from Marlborough, a key area for classic New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, has lovely tropical fruit flavours balanced by soft acidity. From Dunnes Stores; ADM Londis; Next Door; Molloys; O'Briens.