What costs more to produce? screw caps for wine bottes or corks?!
What costs more to produce? screw caps for wine bottes or corks?
my mother - in - law and i couldnt agree on which would be cheaper, corks, or screw caps, please help!
Answers:
Corks would be cheaper.
Screw caps cost less.. that's why they're mostly on the cheaper bottles.
Corks because there is a short supply on cork and it is really used as a novelty, not because it works better. Cork actually lets some wines breath too much and spoil.
Screw caps allow no breathability, yielding less spoilage as a whole.
However many wine lovers believe that the screw caps take the romance away from wine.
screw caps i believe
Cork is made from the inner bark of the oak tree,it is harvested about every 10 years and either cut to shape or chipped and moulded,they are produced in there thousands and the manufacturer can`t garuantee the purness of the cork which is why so many bottles of wine are corked,the cork can contain an algea that reacts with wine to make it oxidise and go off,,you can tel if a wine has been corked by the smell,(a rather musty aroma combined with a dark brownish tint to the wine,if it is red of course,it should be bright reddish)Aproxamately 1 in 12 botles of wine will be corked which is why so many manufacturers are opting for the CHEAPER screw caps or the plastic type that you see nowadays.They can be mas marketed and garuanteed by the manufacturer as algea free and thus reducing the amunt of corked wine.
My brother is a vinyard manager in New Zealand.region of Marlborough
note it is not the cork allowing air in that corks a bottle but the reaction a bad cork has on the wine.Only very old cork will allow wine taint if the cork dries out and allowing air in,thats why you should always lay a bottle down to keep the cork moist.
My buddy in the liquor store told me the same thing about corks letting in too much air & spoiling wine & that more companies/ Vinyards are starting to use screw caps!
In trems of production costs Screw Caps would be marginally dearer than cork. However you have to balance this against the possible of spoilage through cork taint - an infection of te cork that infects and spoils the wine.
Many NZ and Aussie companies are now using screw caps particulary on their white wines because they feel that the wine reaches you much fresher and how the winemaker wanted it.
Corks cost more to produce than screw caps. However aluminium used to produce the screw-caps is getting more expensive and it tends to add a metallic taste to the wine. Manufactures of New world wine in particular are now starting to buying Man Made Cork Substitutes. These give good breathability and yet do not flavour the product. Manufacturers that spring to mind are the E & J Gallo & Gallo Family Labels. Both of these labels are actually parts of the same company.
I particularly like the E & J label "Merlot" and "Ruby Cabernet".
Some details of the Merlot & Ruby Cabernet Grapes at the links below -
http://www.winepros.org/wine101/grape_pr...
http://www.epicurious.com/drinking/wine_...
E & J Gallo and Gallo Family website links below -
Screw caps are definitely cheaper, to the extent that when Roederer are ageing their wines they actually use bottle tops (e.g. bottled beer) to store them for hygiene purposes
screw caps as un-recyclable
the screw cap would be cheaper, but many wine aficionados are now seeing the positive effect of using the Stelvin (screw cap). As many others have said it protects the wine from air. Although time can mature a wine, air can ruin it.