When I am ready to bottle my latest wine I want to consider corks. In
the past I have use twist caps and I think the results were good, but
those were test runs with 1 gallon batches. I have a 5-gallon Concord
going and i think I want to go with corks, but I want to ask: are
corks neccesarily better than twist caps? I know that corks give the
bottle a more classic look, but I would go with the convenience of
twist caps if I thought they were just as good as corks or better.

My understanding is that properly appled twist caps are better than
corks. That is why many commercial wineries are switching to twist
caps. However, home winemakers do not have the ability to apply caps
properly. Reusing old caps MAY give a good seal the first couple of
times, but not forever. The new caps that are available will only fit
specific bottles, eg Arbor Mist bottles. Also, I have seen some
discussion that these new caps are not as good as the type used by
wineries. I don't personally know about that.

BTW, the above is about twist caps and wine bottles. Crown caps and
beer bottles is another matter.

Stvee

On 18 Apr 2006 17:37:25 -0700, "mdginzo" > wrote:

>When I am ready to bottle my latest wine I want to consider corks. In
>the past I have use twist caps and I think the results were good, but
>those were test runs with 1 gallon batches. I have a 5-gallon Concord
>going and i think I want to go with corks, but I want to ask: are
>corks neccesarily better than twist caps? I know that corks give the
>bottle a more classic look, but I would go with the convenience of
>twist caps if I thought they were just as good as corks or better.

It's all relative the way I see it. Wineries use a machine applied
aluminum cap and it's supposed to provide a good seal. I hear New
Zealand is using more of these than corks now. The big name in that is
Stelvin if you want to Google it.

Screw caps from home winemaking suppliers are not the same although
some make a great seal and can be reused.

It depends on how long you want to keep it. Since this is Concord it
will be _very_ fruity so it's not a wine you would normally age for
years and years. I would think screw caps would be fine there.

If it were a really nice Cab or Chardonnay that I though had to rest 5-
10 years I might use a really good natural cork.

Most of what I make would be considered good table wine, it's not cheap
box wine but it's far from a First Growth too. I use Nomacorc and some
agglomerated for the most part. Nomacorc says their cork is good for 3
years.

Most of my red wine is drunk between 2 and 5 years; the white and rose
at 1 to 3 years.

I had a really bad year in 2002 due to junk natural corks. I should
have known better than to use them. They felt too hard and it turned
out they caused a lot of cork taint. I used about 300 and took the
other 700 back and got credit for them. I just thought they were
terrible corks, I did not suspect taint. They were the filled pore
type. Once a wine it tainted it is useless. It's not even good for
vinegar, (unless you want to use it to kill weeds growing in cracks in
your driveway).

Joe

It's all relative the way I see it. Wineries use a machine applied
aluminum cap and it's supposed to provide a good seal. I hear New
Zealand is using more of these than corks now. The big name in that is
Stelvin if you want to Google it.

Screw caps from home winemaking suppliers are not the same although
some make a great seal and can be reused.

It depends on how long you want to keep it. Since this is Concord it
will be _very_ fruity so it's not a wine you would normally age for
years and years. I would think screw caps would be fine there.

If it were a really nice Cab or Chardonnay that I though had to rest 5-
10 years I might use a really good natural cork.

Most of what I make would be considered good table wine, it's not cheap
box wine but it's far from a First Growth too. I use Nomacorc and some
agglomerated for the most part. Nomacorc says their cork is good for 3
years.

Most of my red wine is drunk between 2 and 5 years; the white and rose
at 1 to 3 years.

I had a really bad year in 2002 due to junk natural corks. I should
have known better than to use them. They felt too hard and it turned
out they caused a lot of cork taint. I used about 300 and took the
other 700 back and got credit for them. I just thought they were
terrible corks, I did not suspect taint. They were the filled pore
type. Once a wine it tainted it is useless. It's not even good for
vinegar, (unless you want to use it to kill weeds growing in cracks in
your driveway).

Joe

The oak trees that provided the world with the finest cork are getting very
old. As a result the quality of their bark used to make cork is not was it
use to be. Some of those oak trees have been harvested for hundred of
years. The commercial wineries are well award of this and they are
gradually switching to aluminums screw caps to save guard the quality and
reputation of their wines.
Still some die hard people will not buy expensive wine with an aluminium
screw cap.
I am gradually switching to aluminium screw caps and seals. Over here I can
only get the used 1 litre bottle with their original cap. The supply store
are not yet carrying aluminums screw caps yet.

"Joe Sallustio" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> It's all relative the way I see it. Wineries use a machine applied
> aluminum cap and it's supposed to provide a good seal. I hear New
> Zealand is using more of these than corks now. The big name in that is
> Stelvin if you want to Google it.
>
> Screw caps from home winemaking suppliers are not the same although
> some make a great seal and can be reused.
>
> It depends on how long you want to keep it. Since this is Concord it
> will be _very_ fruity so it's not a wine you would normally age for
> years and years. I would think screw caps would be fine there.
>
> If it were a really nice Cab or Chardonnay that I though had to rest 5-
> 10 years I might use a really good natural cork.
>
> Most of what I make would be considered good table wine, it's not cheap
> box wine but it's far from a First Growth too. I use Nomacorc and some
> agglomerated for the most part. Nomacorc says their cork is good for 3
> years.
>
> Most of my red wine is drunk between 2 and 5 years; the white and rose
> at 1 to 3 years.
>
> I had a really bad year in 2002 due to junk natural corks. I should
> have known better than to use them. They felt too hard and it turned
> out they caused a lot of cork taint. I used about 300 and took the
> other 700 back and got credit for them. I just thought they were
> terrible corks, I did not suspect taint. They were the filled pore
> type. Once a wine it tainted it is useless. It's not even good for
> vinegar, (unless you want to use it to kill weeds growing in cracks in
> your driveway).
>
> Joe
>

Because of the way that the screw caps are applied, I doubt that you
will see them.

Steve

On Wed, 19 Apr 2006 17:05:25 GMT, > wrote:

>The oak trees that provided the world with the finest cork are getting very
>old. As a result the quality of their bark used to make cork is not was it
>use to be. Some of those oak trees have been harvested for hundred of
>years. The commercial wineries are well award of this and they are
>gradually switching to aluminums screw caps to save guard the quality and
>reputation of their wines.
>Still some die hard people will not buy expensive wine with an aluminium
>screw cap.
>I am gradually switching to aluminium screw caps and seals. Over here I can
>only get the used 1 litre bottle with their original cap. The supply store
>are not yet carrying aluminums screw caps yet.

You have a good point.

Aluminium screw caps can be formed and made on the bottle after it has been
filled. Or utilizing the same tooling approach used to make incandescent
light screw base but in reverse you can make tons of caps.
China may already have the tooling, outsourcing caps is not a problem.
Conversely, some Canadian and US companies already making plastic caps for
the food industries are already testing and working with major wineries to
produce an acceptable cap.

"Steve" > wrote in message
...
> Because of the way that the screw caps are applied, I doubt that you
> will see them.
>
> Steve
>
> On Wed, 19 Apr 2006 17:05:25 GMT, > wrote:
>
>>The oak trees that provided the world with the finest cork are getting
>>very
>>old. As a result the quality of their bark used to make cork is not was
>>it
>>use to be. Some of those oak trees have been harvested for hundred of
>>years. The commercial wineries are well award of this and they are
>>gradually switching to aluminums screw caps to save guard the quality and
>>reputation of their wines.
>>Still some die hard people will not buy expensive wine with an aluminium
>>screw cap.
>>I am gradually switching to aluminium screw caps and seals. Over here I
>>can
>>only get the used 1 litre bottle with their original cap. The supply
>>store
>>are not yet carrying aluminums screw caps yet.
>

If you are ageing a wine for 18 months or less, it is probably better
to bottle under screwcap as it protects the wine from oxidizing as
quickly, plus there is no risk of cork taint.

For long-term ageing, the jury is still out on scewcaps (they simply
haven't been used on age-worthy wines for long enough). If you have a
big red you intend to age for years, you might want to bottle a few
under screwcap and the rest under natural cork and test them every year
side-by-side to see how they develop differently.

Most of the studies I've read indicate that the screwcaps preserve the
wine much better, but can give off flavours after a period of time.
And of course, if you are ageing a wine into maturity/austerity,
preserving it isn't exactly the goal.