Natural Cork, Synthetic Cork or Screw-Cap?!
Each of them have thier advantages and disadvantages but we all have our preference...
Whats your and Why ?
Answers: When opening a bottle of wine which do you prefer ?
Each of them have thier advantages and disadvantages but we all have our preference...
Whats your and Why ?
Interesting answer from on thin ice.
This is a heated debate that occurs every 10 years or so. It was recently raised in an issue of Wine Spectator, and it will aways be a debate for years to come.
I am a cork kind of guy. I agree with the satisfaction of pulling a cork. I actually have fun looking at a cork and look for stains. I am tempted to smell the cork at times just for the heck of it, whether or not it adds to my wine experience. I also love to put my cork in various displaying position - in cork container, make cork jacket, ues it for art pieces, etc. However, from a purist stand of view, cork allows my wine to develop. Wine is a living thing, and it continues to evolve until it either goes bad or gets consumed. A cork is a natural wood product that allows the wine to change over time in the way wine is first designed to do. Having cellaring wines for many years, I can see some of the differences in aging between natural cork vs synthetic cork and screw cap.
Screw cap is the new "it" for wine industry. However, if you look at it realistically, most of the "serious" wines are still natural cork rather than screw cap. Plumbjack Reserve cabernet is the last good wine that I know of that use screw cap, and since then they had gone back to cork. There are a few French Bordeaux wines that use screw cap, but again, none of the first or second growth use screw cap. I think that shows what premeium wine industry feel about screw cap vs natural cork.
As for synthetic cork, it is also prone to temperature flucturation as well as now allowing wine to breath and develop. I also find that cheaper synthetic cork, especially the rubber one, may give slight taste to the wine. Maybe it's just me.
I like hte traditional cork but we have to save the planet so I guess the others aren't so bad.
I heard a report on Radio 4 that said extensive research had bee ndone into the type of cork used on a bottle of wine and it makes no real difference, if anything the artificial ones were better.
Screw cap. Very easy to open and much more convenient.
screw cap, however the cork industry depends upon the wine industry.
There's something quite statisfying about pulling a cork out of a wine bottle. It's just like that satisfying noise you get when breaking the seal on a jar of instant coffee by pushing a teaspoon through it
I think the synthetic cork gives the best pop. I did read somewhere that synthetic is better as the wine can't get corked with a synthetic cork.
For ease of use though you can't beat the screw top.
the screw cap is easeyer but it keeps the wine too "fresh", so it doesn't age as much with time because corks aren't perfect seals, but i really can't tell the difference.
I prefer natural cork on wines that intended for ageing. The wines just do not age as well otherwise.
But since only like 20% of wine produced is really meant for ageing, the other 80% doesn't really matter what closure they get.
I had a Kim Crawford Sauvingon last night which is a screw cap, and the wine was superb! But I wouldn't buy a Burgundy or Bordeaux with a scew cap.
And as for saving the planet, there are forests full of cork trees, that are habitats for wildlife, but what do you think will happen to them if no one buys cork anymore? Do you think the forests will be "saved", or cut down to make room for a mall?
Screw caps are always good
screw cap great if your going on a picnic also good if for some strange reason you dont finish the bottle you can bring it home without fighting to get the cork back in
The real benefit of a synthetic cork or a screw cap is that they won't taint the wine. But what we don't really know is whether quality wine will mature properly over a long period of time...
I'm a natural cork man, but I know it's unreasonable. But then I prefer the sound of an LP to a CD...
Synthetic, if I had to chose. They're less likely to break.
What a brill Q which prompted me to look up some hard facts of a story I'd heard previously. Ironically real cork tends to have a 'snob' value and there is no loss of wine quality with artificial or screw tops, perhaps even the opposite. BUT consider the total picture. Cork, from the cork oak is a renewable natural resource harvested approx. every 10yrs. If the use of cork substitutes continues at its present rate, by 2015 its estimated 27,500 industrial jobs will be lost, 35,00 forestry jobs lost, the tree stabilises and is ideal for the climatic conditions of its environment, it provides habitat for other wildlife, acres of cork oak will no longer have or be valued ,there will be waste land.
I reckon you ought to put this into the environment categories as well. Makes you think doesn't it. From now on I'll look at cork differently and value it more.
Actually, I heard that boxed wine is best for the wine. No joke. Personally, I don't care what keeps the wine in the package, as long as it ends up in my stomach eventually.