Cork vs. Screwcap

[Paul Wagner]

Curmy, Randy, et al:

I once ran the CQC, so let me share a little of what I know about all of this.

#1. For short term storage, screw caps seem to work as well as corks. There is evidence that synthetic corks may increase the oxidation of the wine (research done by Geisenheim in Germany)

#2. Jerry suggestion, to stack screw cap and cork finished wine side by side, has already been done in Australia, complete with millions of $ of ads. The result? People bought the cork finished wine, and sales of the screw cap wine lagged far, far behind.

#3. Randy has suggested that there may be a new and innovative approach that make the debate moot. This may be true, but not from the direction that he thinks. There was an EU consortium inlcuding Burklin- Wolf and Ohlinger in Germany, Oller in Spain, and Juvenal Ferreire da Silva in Portugal that came up with a new way of processing natural corks. The claim (supported by substantail research and documentation at a the Technical Ag lab in Germany) is that the process not only eliminates the potential for further taint in already tainted corks, but also removes more than 90% of the existing problem in tainted corks. The technology is not overly complicated, and the group expects to have the first commercially available products on the market within the year.

Paul Wagner