Screw caps vs. corks There is more than enough evidence around, especially Tyson Stelzer's two books, "Screwed for good? The Case for Screw Caps on Red Wines" and "Taming the Screw. A Manual for Winemaking with Screw Caps". Please mail me (via "reply to" button), I have something for you which is too large to be posted here. Personally both Riesling and Grüner Veltliner 2002 from Hannes Hirsch. He was the first to use them in Austria. In red Feiler- Artinger's Solitaire 2003. There is an excellent comparative tasting report (same wine corked and screwed) covering AU and NZ wines, both white and red, up to 11 years of age here (btw, it was mentioned in this group iirc): or shorter The essence: It seems that wines age and develop slower under screw caps. This is absolutely in line with what Peter Gago, Penfold's chief winemaker, told me. He has experience with reds under screwcaps for 11 and 12 years now: "They age slightly different, like a cool cellar compared to a normal cellar." What better is there? If they age too slow, keep them slightly warmer. As to very long-term ageing, Peter Gago has a 1972 Yalumba Riesling in the fridge at his office. If the visitor is important enough, Peter even might open it: Any time he did, the wine was absolutely fabulous. In our last comprehensive champagne tasting in 2003 (Vinaria 6-2003, pp. 80 - 94) we had 82 wines. 13 were corked, in 3 cases both bottles corked. In 8 cases the taint was confirmed by an untainted back-up bottle. In total, from 93 bottles opened 16 corked: a total of 17%. When Moët & Chandon presented Dom Pérignon 1998 here in Vienna some months ago, we had Dom '96 as Aperitif (and good-bye sip): 2 corks out of 9 bottles. As to the '98, from 6 or 7 bottles opened I clearly had two or three different wines, the last bottle being completely oxidized. With taint rates like these (confirmed by personal experience and by others), aesthetic deficiencies are a non-argument for me. What matters is what's in the glbutt, not the packaging - at least for me. Have you seen this: M.
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