Jump to Main Content

Words of Wine

Wine Quiz

 

What's the Main Grape in a St. Emilion Bordeaux?


The stock answer is Merlot.

But a lot of St. Emilion wines, and some in Pomerol too, are heavy in Cabernet Franc.

Perhaps the most famous wine from the so-called "right bank" - which includes both St. Emilion and Pomerol - is Chateau Petrus. This one is indeed based on Merlot and is, bottle for bottle, probably the most expensive wine on the planet.

On the other hand, wine from Chateau Cheval Blanc (White Horse Castle) is mostly Cab Franc. And a writer from Slate called 1948 Cheval Blanc "the finest wine on the planet." Never having tasted any, and never likely to, can't say that I agree.

Anyway, these wines contrast with the so-called left bank wines that are based on Cabernet Sauvignon, from the major appellations of Medoc, Haut Medoc and Graves, and all the sub-appellations such as Margaux, Pauillac and St. Julien.

 

Screwcaps: Obtaining Closure?

 

People ask me all the time about screwcaps on wine.

Now, most people don't think much about the science of wine; they just want to know one thing: can a bottle of wine with a screwcap be any good? Or, they want to know something slightly different - is any really good wine being bottled with a screwcap?

Simple answer on both counts: Yes. Lots of wines today come with a screwcap, including so-called luxury wines, which can fetch $150 a bottle or more. But I'd like to qualify what I'm saying with a few points.

First of all, the jury is out on whether or not screw caps will work effectively and enable some wines, particularly big, bold reds, to age in the bottle for 10, 20, or even 30 years. We just don't know, because screw caps haven't been around that long and until recently, vendors were putting screwcaps only on whites that were meant to be drunk very young, typically within one to two years of release.

That's still the case, and in fact Australian and New Zealand wineries are putting screw caps on about 70% of their wines, the vast majority being crisp whites such as Sauvignon Blanc. However, more and more wineries are adopting screwcaps for at least some of their reds as well, including mid-priced and premium wines. And while there aren't too many super-premium or so-called luxury red wines being bottled under screwcap, there are a few.

In fact, the Plumpjack winery in Napa, co-owned by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, was putting a $100 bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon under screwcap several years ago. In any event, screwcap technology has improved vastly in the last two years and it's important to understand that the closure itself isn't the cap, but a liner under it, that provides the seal.

Why Screw?

The most obvious reason for using this type of closure is that there is zero chance of the wine being "corked," tainted with TCA which gives the wine a nasty, musty smell and off-putting taste. That's because conventional wisdom and the best statistics we can find tell us that 3% to 7% of all wines being bottled with a traditional cork will be tainted by it, rendering them either undrinkable or at least a big disappointment. And it's important to remember that the problem isn't present only in corks; entire wineries have become "contaminated" with endemic TCA, requiring major and costly efforts to sanitize the place and eliminate the problem.

What to do?

The cork industry has responded with vastly improved methods of sanitizing cork to minimize TCA, including the unique, patented "Diamond" process pioneered by Oeneo Closures (formerly Sabate), one of the world's largest cork producers. Amorim, the world's largest winecork producer, has its own ROSA sanitizing process, and offers an entire line of products based on the expected "drink by" range for particular wines.

The industry has moved in other directions, too, with entirely new closures, the most interesting in my view being the agglomerated cork. An agglomerated cork is kinda like particle board furniture: natural cork is ground up and then reassembled into a traditional cork shape using a binder, along with tiny particles called microspheres. It looks a lot like a natural cork, although the ends are more rounded, and it maintains some but not all of the properties of cork. For example, natural cork has a bit more elasticity which is why it works so well in the bottle - it can be compressed by a bottling machine and then it expands in that neck of the bottle to close the space. Agglomerated corks do this, but perhaps not as well.

As for other "types" of cork, synthetic corks made from plastic such as Nomacorc seem to be losing the battle, as they evidently let in too much oxygen, perhaps many times more than traditional cork. They also can trash your best corkscrew. But to be fair, they are being used widely by a lot of vintners who know the facts, and for wines that are drunk within, say, a year, they may be as good as a screwcap and better than traditional cork. But for me, well, I stand with Jancis Robinson when I say to vintners "please stop using synthetics corks!"

The big issue here is to what extent any type of closure allows oxygen to enter the bottle. Interestingly, we know that a screwcap is more airtight than natural cork, so doesn't that end the discussion in favor of a screwcap? Not quite. Because despite the fact that we can determine how much oxygen gets in, the bigger question is...is some oxygen beneficial to wine? Many winemakers, scientists and even some of us humble wine writers think that not only is it beneficial, but essential for natural, proper aging. And without going all scientific on you, there is some evidence that screwcaps can cause a process called reduction, which can itself leave a corked-like smell and taste in the wine almost identical to...TCA!

Of course, if you ask 5 experts, you'll get 7 opinions. My bottom line is that screwcaps are a pretty good solution for the majority of whites, and the jury will be out for awhile on their use in longer-aging whites and most reds. Stay tuned!

I give a pretty thorough rundown on various types of closures in the "Wine Q&A" piece of my FAQ section, which you might want to check out.