Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/81015
MANAGEMENT MARKET WATCH Others aren't too keen to dive into the deep end, especially those concerned about scaring away older customers and/or those who might be legitimately conflicted about the way age-worthy reds and certain white wines develop under screwcaps. DOUBTING THOMAS I heard veteran winemaker Charles Thomas of Napa Val - ley's Quintessa sigh when I told him I was looking to speak with a staunch advocate of cork. All of Quintessa's wines, including the $140 flagship red blend and a low- er-priced red and white, are bottled with natural cork. Thomas quickly pointed out that he had bottled Rudd Estate's $30-plus sauvignon blanc under screwcap and he wasn't prejudiced. "I'm still of the opinion that there's nothing better than a good cork, and there's nothing worse than a bad cork. That leaves a whole lot of ground in the middle," Thomas said. He has done trials with several closures at Robert Mondavi Winery, Cardinale and Rudd. Beginning in 2009, he sub- mits all Quintessa corks to an exacting "dry soak" process to screen corks individually by putting them in small bottles overnight with a few drops of water and then sniffing for TCA before the corks are used in actual wine bottles. If that sounds like a lot of work, it is, especially when his bottling run requires 100,000 sound corks. "If we're paying 85 cents or more for good corks, as long as I'm get- ting a cork that appears sound, spending another 30 cents can be a good investment," he said. "It's cheap insurance. As more people do this, it resets the bar lower for perceptible incidents of TCA, to well below half a percent, and hope- fully below that, essen- 28 VINEYARD & WINERY MANAGEMENT SEPT - OCT 2012 tially pushing cork producers to a standard that's closer to where we want it." Thomas acknowledged that his audience might not be the most forward-thinking, and that he him- self might be comfortable with the pace at which cork-finished wines mature. "The younger you are, the less you care about the closure as long as it performs properly," he said. "I'm above that threshold, so I'm thinking differently from many of my (younger) cohorts, and I'm looking for something that comes as close as possible to a great cork," he said. He also pointed out that 20- or 30-year durability of screwcaps is a legitimate concern, but let's face it, not all corks weath- er 20 years in the bottle, either. Tablas Creek Vineyard gen- eral manager Jason Haas in Paso Robles supervises the bottling of a wide array of wines, and bottles about half of the production under screwcap. He's on the fence on the topic. For Haas, it's all about finding the ideal closure for each wine, and he said he believes that cork lends generosity and richness to age-wor- thy wines over time. He even recently moved Tablas Creek's roussanne back from screwcap to cork because it allows the wine to show better over time. To date, Haas uses only tight- sealing, tin-lined screwcaps and not the semi-permeable Saranex-lined versions. "The things that we age in barrel, we use cork, and the ones that we mature in steel, we use a screwcap," he explained. "We've never used the semi-per- meable ones. If there's a wine that we want to have a certain level of permeability, we'll use cork. There's no reason that we have to use a screwcap." Still, the conversion to screwcaps for many The Tablas Creek Patelin de Tablas, a screwcap-finished red priced at $20, sold out in seven months. WWW.VWM-ONLINE.COM of the Tablas Creek wines has been nothing but a plus. "I think there is probably some negative blow- back for (bottling) red wines under screwcap, but not for red wines under a certain price-point – and that price is maybe a little higher than people think it is," Haas said. "Our Patelin (red and white blends) at $20 both were under screwcap and sold out in seven months." I know this is anecdotal and not scientific, but I'm starting to see a pattern. Maybe it's time for the American wine industry to finally commit to a long-term relationship with screwcaps and bottle more ageable reds with the closure. The evidence is growing that there should be a place for screwcaps in the cellar as well as the grocery store aisle. Comments? Please e-mail us at feedback@vwm-online.com.