"Pinky" wrote in message
...
Tom, und alles, qul ragoul,and everybody,

I am always interested in discussion about corks. Screw caps seem to be
the
up and coming answer but there may be a couple of drawbacks.

1. I presume that the wine must be stored standing on end as opposed to
lying on their sides in a wine rack. I "presume" because I would expect
that contact of the wine with the interior of the screw cap with its
relatively thin sealing material would be detrimental to both the wine and
the cap.

Season's greetings, Trevor -

The screwcapped bottles I've seen can be stored indefinitely in any
position. I suspect that upside-down would not be advisable however, since
that could cause a dent in the sealing surface that could breach the
integrity of the seal. Lying down would be just fine though.

2. I am also concerned on the quality of the seal between the lip of the
bottle and the internal coating of the screw cap. I confess that I haven't
looked at what material is used currently but it always used to be a thin
layer of cork covered with a thin paperlike plastic disc.

The Stelvin caps contain no cork. Between the cap and the neck of the
bottle is a layer of compressible (closed cell foam?) plastic, a layer of
metal foil (probably aluminum or tin) and a very thin layer of clear
plastic. You could probably store nitric acid under them!

I have expressed my opinion on corks and corking previously -- especially
for the small home winemaker -- currently I standardise on a particular
type
of traditional cork available in UK and my Portuguese floor corker. I
insert
corks dry directly from the package without any treatment whatsoever. I
have
now been doing this for 2 years and my inherent empirical taste opinions
are
that I am so much happier with the long term results.

For most home winemakers, corks are probably going to remain popular
indefinitely. I've had little problem with them myself, but the spectre of
"cork taint" looms large over all commercial wineries. It wouldn't be such
an issue if buying more expensive corks would eliminate the threat of TCA,
but even 50¢ corks are thus afflicted. For my first commercial release I'm
probably going to use synthetic corks - primarily for their lack of taint
problems, but also for their considerably lower cost.

Merry Christmas to everyone.

And to you as well!

Tom S

"JEP" wrote in message
om...
"Tom S" wrote in message
m...
"JEP" wrote in message
om...

I've done that already, to my satisfaction. Red wine ages just fine
under
screw caps. Mine was a 1984 vintage Cabernet that I tasted ~15 years
later
at the same time I tasted the same wine that had been cork finished.
The
difference was slight; perhaps even imaginary.

Tom S

Thanks, Tom.

Could you give a little more info on the wine? Acid level. Tannin
level when young. Impressions on how the wine aged.

IIRC, the acid was ~7g/l. It was quite tannic in its youth (1984 vintage) -
even after fining. During aging, the wine dropped out a lot of tannin and
softened considerably. I still have some magnums of the cork-finished lot,
and it's still good AFAIK. It's been a couple of years since I tasted it,
but it had plenty of life then. I should open a magnum over the holidays
come to think of it.

The one area that I'm still not convinced that screw caps are better
(I'm not saying they aren't better, only that the jury is still out)
is wine that is made to be aged 15 years before it's even
approachable. Granted, there is not a lot of this type of wine made,
but IMHO it is worth the wait.

My reading indicates that even if wine is hermetically sealed in glass
ampoules, it still ages. Screw capped wines do also.

Tom S

Trevor,
One of the noted advantages to both screw caps and synthetics is that
they can be stored upright. Many wineries find it to their liking for the
storage of the wine before it goes out for wholesale, or out front. Merry
Christmas!
John Dixon
"Pinky" wrote in message
...
Tom, und alles, qul ragoul,and everybody,

I am always interested in discussion about corks. Screw caps seem to be
the
up and coming answer but there may be a couple of drawbacks.

1. I presume that the wine must be stored standing on end as opposed to
lying on their sides in a wine rack. I "presume" because I would expect
that contact of the wine with the interior of the screw cap with its
relatively thin sealing material would be detrimental to both the wine and
the cap. Standing on end for storage takes up a lot more room than being
racked in the normal way. I have very limited space and I rack 99 bottles
in
a space 90cms high by 75 wide by about 35 cms deep -- 9 bottles per level
11 levels. I would only get half that quantity stored in the normal dozen
sized cardboard cases.

2. I am also concerned on the quality of the seal between the lip of the
bottle and the internal coating of the screw cap. I confess that I haven't
looked at what material is used currently but it always used to be a thin
layer of cork covered with a thin paperlike plastic disc. As a home wine
maker I would also find it difficult to produce the same quality of seal
that is created by what ever machine "caps" the screwtop bottles.

I have expressed my opinion on corks and corking previously -- especially
for the small home winemaker -- currently I standardise on a particular
type
of traditional cork available in UK and my Portuguese floor corker. I
insert
corks dry directly from the package without any treatment whatsoever. I
have
now been doing this for 2 years and my inherent empirical taste opinions
are
that I am so much happier with the long term results.

Merry Christmas to everyone.

--
Trevor A Panther
In South Yorkshire, England
Remove "SPAMLESS" from my address line to reply.
All outgoing mail is scanned by Norton
Anti Virus for your protection too!
"Tom S" wrote in message
m...

"Don S" wrote in message
om...
I've done that already, to my satisfaction. Red wine ages just fine
under
screw caps. Mine was a 1984 vintage Cabernet that I tasted ~15
years
later
at the same time I tasted the same wine that had been cork finished.
The
difference was slight; perhaps even imaginary.

Thanks for posting that Tom, it seemed to nicely cap a
good thread.

Are you thinking of switching everything over to caps?

I'd *love* to use Stelvin screwcaps for my commercial wines, but the
winery
only handles corks at the moment. I'll continue to lobby hard for a
screwcap line, but I don't have $50K to pay for the mods. I'm also
lobbying
for a centrifuge, but I don't have the $$ for that either. It isn't
_my_
winery anyway; I just rent space there.

Tom S

Could you give a little more info on the wine? Acid level. Tannin
level when young. Impressions on how the wine aged.

IIRC, the acid was ~7g/l. It was quite tannic in its youth (1984 vintage) -
even after fining. During aging, the wine dropped out a lot of tannin and
softened considerably. I still have some magnums of the cork-finished lot,
and it's still good AFAIK. It's been a couple of years since I tasted it,
but it had plenty of life then. I should open a magnum over the holidays
come to think of it.

The one area that I'm still not convinced that screw caps are better
(I'm not saying they aren't better, only that the jury is still out)
is wine that is made to be aged 15 years before it's even
approachable. Granted, there is not a lot of this type of wine made,
but IMHO it is worth the wait.

My reading indicates that even if wine is hermetically sealed in glass
ampoules, it still ages. Screw capped wines do also.

Tom S


Thanks,

Andy