It is now very rare to find the total use of natural cork to stop wine
bottles with the Rioja region of Spain being the most obvious
exception. Increasingly, for a wide variety of reasons, the use of
plastic stoppers and screw caps is becoming widespread. Why is this so,
and what are the pros and cons of each method, and what should we be
looking for when considering the alternatives? This really is a topic
of hot debate in the world of wine at the moment. By tasting wines
using the different methods of stopping, you can join this debate fully
with your own opinions, thereby reinforcing the subjectivity of wine
appreciation.
Most consumers still prefer natural cork and think of it as the most
classy and professional way to package and stop wine. They would argue
that the popping of a cork is part of the romance of wine appreciation,
but it is true that the incidence of cork taint is on the increase.
This occurs when a bad cork infects the wine with a mouldy, musty smell
and flavour. Indeed it is believed that somewhere approaching one in
twenty bottle are so affected, and whilst the worse ones are relatively
easy to spot, those affected slightly do not become apparent until
opened and nearly drunk. Never suffer a corked wine, always send it
back or return it to the vendor. Cork producers are working hard to
improve the consistency in quality with constantly improving results.
It is important to remember that wines bottled using natural cork do
generally age well, because the cork allows for a tiny exchange of air
within the bottle, resulting in a gradual, small amount of oxidation.
Plastic stoppers prevent this cork taint and indeed some are made to
look like natural cork, but they can be difficult to get off the
corkscrew and even harder to get back into the unfinished bottle.
Probably the most important issue with plastic stoppers is that we do
not know how the wine reacts to the plastic. It is this doubt that has
prompted producers to move over to screw caps, which were traditionally
used to stop cheaper wines. Now more and more premium wine is stopped
this way with the Australians and New World producers leading the way,
although some progressive Europeans are joining the trend.
Screw caps eliminate cork taint, allow effective resealing and were
first used to seal those wines considered to be susceptible to cork
taint, such as Riesling or Sauvignon Blanc. Whilst red wines can
benefit from cork sealing in terms of taste, screw caps are much easier
to use. As for the future screw caps seem to be in the ascendancy at
the moment, but as cork producers begin to tackle the problem of taint
effectively there might be a revival in its uptake.
