Screw Tops on French Wine?

[menton1]

Remember the old Ripple and other laughable wines with the screw top? The 2 guys Bartles and Jaymes (They were actors) and their cheap screw top wine ads on TV?

Well it seems that scientific studies show that screw tops do a better job of preserving the wine in the bottle than a cork. The biggest problem is psychological. The French feel that the public just won't go for a screw top on a wine, it connotes poor quality.

I know I myself would feel a bit peculiar opening a nice wine with a screw metal cap. There is just something nice and traditional about a cork. Plus, what would those French waiters and sommeliers do, they have such style and panache when they open your bottle at your table. The popping sound is fun as well.

Anybody here that wouldn't mind a fine wine with a screw top?

Here's the news story from Bordeaux:

Wine bottles with Screw Tops

[JohnL]

Remember the old Ripple and other laughable wines with the screw top?  The 2 guys Bartles and Jaymes  (They were actors) and their cheap screw top wine ads on TV? 

Well it seems that scientific studies show that screw tops do a better job of preserving the wine in the bottle than a cork.  The biggest problem is psychological.  The French feel that the public just won't go for a screw top on a wine, it connotes poor quality. 

I know I myself would feel a bit peculiar opening a nice wine with a screw metal cap.  There is just something nice and traditional about a cork.  Plus, what would those French waiters and sommeliers do, they have such style and panache when they open your bottle at your table.  The popping sound is fun as well.

Anybody here that wouldn't mind a fine wine with a screw top? 

Here's the news story from Bordeaux: 

Wine bottles with Screw Tops

←

No maybe about it--it is coming!

I have a cellar full (maybe not as full as i'd like) of French wine.

I paid a lot of money for it and the thought that even one bottle of my 82 Margaux or Mouton will be corked when I open it in a few years (or more) is unnerving.

I have sent back at least a dozen bottles of wine i ordered in restaurants over the last year or so--at least they replace the wine at no extra cost--the stuff i bought myself over the years--well that's another story!

I do love the romance of a cork and I would love for the corked wine thing to be solved without resorting to screw tops but in the end--whatever method evolves it is a shame that so much wine is corked today!

By the way--this is really an issue for all wine--French or otherwise--I got some California cabernets and german Rieslings and.... that I paid quite a bit for as well.

[bgut1]

Remember the old Ripple and other laughable wines with the screw top?  The 2 guys Bartles and Jaymes  (They were actors) and their cheap screw top wine ads on TV? 

Well it seems that scientific studies show that screw tops do a better job of preserving the wine in the bottle than a cork.  The biggest problem is psychological.  The French feel that the public just won't go for a screw top on a wine, it connotes poor quality. 

I know I myself would feel a bit peculiar opening a nice wine with a screw metal cap.  There is just something nice and traditional about a cork.  Plus, what would those French waiters and sommeliers do, they have such style and panache when they open your bottle at your table.  The popping sound is fun as well.

Anybody here that wouldn't mind a fine wine with a screw top? 

Here's the news story from Bordeaux: 

Wine bottles with Screw Tops

←

No maybe about it--it is coming!

I have a cellar full (maybe not as full as i'd like) of French wine.

I paid a lot of money for it and the thought that even one bottle of my 82 Margaux or Mouton will be corked when I open it in a few years (or more) is unnerving.

I have sent back at least a dozen bottles of wine i ordered in restaurants over the last year or so--at least they replace the wine at no extra cost--the stuff i bought myself over the years--well that's another story!

I do love the romance of a cork and I would love for the corked wine thing to be solved without resorting to screw tops but in the end--whatever method evolves it is a shame that so much wine is corked today!

By the way--this is really an issue for all wine--French or otherwise--I got some California cabernets and german Rieslings and.... that I paid quite a bit for as well.

←

I have seen more and more wines with screw tops lately and I have to admit I have a hard time buying them. The few that I have purchased I consume at home. The last time I took a screw top bottle to a BYOB I felt weird having to explain it to my dining companion and the waiter. Whether it is the wave of the future or not I believe wine makers will have a tough time trying to sell them on expensive bottles of wine. What happened to plastic corks?

[Laidback]

Quote: "I do love the romance of a cork and I would love for the corked wine thing to be solved without resorting to screw tops but in the end--whatever method evolves it is a shame that so much wine is corked today"

This may necessitate some new wine terminology; would you prefer to be corked or screwed?

[John Talbott]

Remember the old Ripple and other laughable wines with the screw top?  The 2 guys Bartles and Jaymes  (They were actors) and their cheap screw top wine ads on TV? 

←

You used to have to go to an entrepot or the wine store near the Montparnasse cemetery to get high quality box wines (no oxygen, no spoilage there either) - now my two local wine stores have them prominantly displayed in front.

I was told by one of my wine-store owners that the tony places are afraid of the perception that screw-top means plonk, but they're changing their minds d/t spoilage (one insisted the true rate of baditude was 10%).

[jamiemaw]

It's the way of the world with, as usual, Antipodean winemakers leading the charge. Cork screws will become to the beginning of this century what buggy whips were to the beginning of the last. Mind you, the fastidious Swiss have been using Stelvin closures for 30 years.

Other New World wineries are following suit and quickly, for the simple reason that wine is a consumer good the manufacturer knows in advance will have a spoilage rate from 2 to 10%. Many consumers are well past the opening ceremony and have already moved on to embracing a superior technology. Hopefullt it will put paid to that filthy conceit of cork-sniffing too.

In Bordeaux, Chateau Couhins Lurton, Chateau La Louvière and Chateau Bonnet have adopted Stelvin technology. A recent dinner here with some French winemakers of reputation suggests that they are doing lots of Stelvin research: the whites are a given in time; the new red closures that allow minute quantities of air (controlled permeability) to enter the bottle are being quietly researched.

[John Talbott]

March 3rd, Expatica and AFP published a piece by Sophie Kevany on screw tops that says Bordeaux's Andre Lurton will go entirely to such tops but Chat. Margaux will not.

[JohnL]

March 3rd, Expatica and AFP published a piece by Sophie Kevany on screw tops that says Bordeaux's Andre Lurton will go entirely to such tops but Chat. Margaux will not.

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Any wine meant to be consumed within a short time after bottling really has no excuse not to go to a non traditional cork enclosure.

The problem --yet to be resolved--is the impact of screw tops etc upon a wine's aging over long periods of time.

[John Talbott]

March 3rd, Expatica and AFP published a piece by Sophie Kevany on screw tops that says Bordeaux's Andre Lurton will go entirely to such tops but Chat. Margaux will not.

←

Any wine meant to be consumed within a short time after bottling really has no excuse not to go to a non traditional cork enclosure.

The problem --yet to be resolved--is the impact of screw tops etc upon a wine's aging over long periods of time.

←

I'm in no ways an expert, consider me the messenger, but the article quotes Jean Luc Zell, director at Chateau Agassac (with neat music), saying "It is a myth that red wine needs air to age."

[bleudauvergne]

Loic and I were arguing about whether any air actually gets in through those little holes in the metal cover on top. He was talking to one vigneron who said that the holes are there in order to allow air to circulate in, and I was thinking, oh, to keep fungal growth down at the surface of the cork and Loic said non, for allowing air in to the wine! I scoffed and we argued for quite a long time about that.

There is a really good conversation over in the wine forum called Looking for Closure: Screwcaps vs. Corks, Love 'em or Leave 'em [merged] with lots of technical details and opinions. Here is a link to the last post in that thread since it's a long one and has been going on for 5 years now!