LATEST ON SCREW CAPS
This month's Wine Spectator has another interesting article regarding the trend toward the use of screw caps on higher quality wine bottles. Long regarded as the signature of cheap wine, screw caps have been rapidly gaining acceptance for use on bottles of higher end wines.
The Wine Spectator article reports on a 10-year study by the Australian Wine Research Institute. The test was designed to measure the performance of different types of corks, it was not specifically a test of screw caps, but the metal closures were included in the test. Thousands of bottles of 1999 Clare Semillon were sealed with 14 different closures. Some bottles were opened each year and analyzed and tested. The article featured a photograph of a set of 14 bottles after 28 months and after 10 years. In both cases, the bottle with the screw cap appeared to be the freshest as the wine in all of the other bottles had darkened (oxidized) to varying degrees. It wasn't just appearance. Blind taste tests found that the wine in the bottles with the screw caps retained its freshness while the wine in most of the other bottles were undrinkable.
Oh well. Since removing the cork is one of the important rituals of wine drinking, I suggest that designers be asked to consider new designs for screw caps that would require some sort of ritual for removing them beyond simply twisting them open with one's hand. I don't know what that might be; however, one potential element might be to add a thin cylinder of cork to the top of the screw cap as a symbol of the age-old tradition of cork closures.
The Wine Spectator article reports on a 10-year study by the Australian Wine Research Institute. The test was designed to measure the performance of different types of corks, it was not specifically a test of screw caps, but the metal closures were included in the test. Thousands of bottles of 1999 Clare Semillon were sealed with 14 different closures. Some bottles were opened each year and analyzed and tested. The article featured a photograph of a set of 14 bottles after 28 months and after 10 years. In both cases, the bottle with the screw cap appeared to be the freshest as the wine in all of the other bottles had darkened (oxidized) to varying degrees. It wasn't just appearance. Blind taste tests found that the wine in the bottles with the screw caps retained its freshness while the wine in most of the other bottles were undrinkable.
Oh well. Since removing the cork is one of the important rituals of wine drinking, I suggest that designers be asked to consider new designs for screw caps that would require some sort of ritual for removing them beyond simply twisting them open with one's hand. I don't know what that might be; however, one potential element might be to add a thin cylinder of cork to the top of the screw cap as a symbol of the age-old tradition of cork closures.
posted by Gino at
7:38 PM
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