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
> >
> >
>
>