uncorked
In 2000, a group of riesling producers from Australia's Clare Valley, led by winemaker Jeff Grosset, decided en masse to bottle all or some of the vintage under screw cap instead of cork. This bold decision garnered massive publicity - cynics declared that interest in Australian riesling was at such a low that producers had to do something to attract buyers. But since then, the screw cap has won an increasing number of fans, mostly in the New World. Ninety per cent of New Zealand wine is now bottled in this way.
Eyebrows were raised earlier this year, however, during a tasting of Portuguese wine in Hong Kong, when a number of the delegation were pouring from bottles that had been sealed with screw caps. Was it possible the Portuguese were forsaking the cork for which their country is famous? Not really. The screw cap movement has not made a big impression in Europe.
'In this part of the world, we seem to be able to embrace new technology very easily,' says Michael Brajkovich, a master of wine and winemaker at New Zealand's Kumeu River Wines, and a major force behind the Marlborough initiative to change to screw caps. 'The Old World countries are much more conservative.'
The pro-cork camp argues about reduction (relating to the extent of oxygen ingress) and plays the environment card. Amorim, the world's largest cork company, which produces three billion corks a year, claims a recipe of preventative and curative measures introduced in the past few years have eradicated cork problems. But Carlos de Jesus, the company's marketing and communications manager, says, 'There is no such thing as a perfect closure in the same way that there is no such thing as a perfect mobile phone.'
The other camp says that, while the cork problems responsible for spoiled wine (including cork taint and oxidation) may have been reduced - it is estimated one in 10 bottles is affected - they have not been eliminated. They are patiently waiting for an extended period of ageing of screw cap wines to prove that this form of closure is suitable not only for early-drinking wines. Brajkovich adds that technology can only improve.