Tour Bordeaux Wine chateaux with real corks: Screw those screw caps!

I know, I know, it’s just my opinion: I hate screw caps. So there you go, you can now start picking on me. But I will tell you why I hate screw caps so much.
I know corks can be a nuisance some times. I have read the comments about the 10% bad corks or one bad cork per case of 12 (that’s NOT 10%; if you calculate properly!). I agree that every bottle lost to the cork is an awful waste, especially if you have been waiting for years for your prize Bordeaux.
I know that many wines don’t need aging and some don’t even need corks at all. I realize that the poor Portuguese oak trees can’t keep up with our thirsty drinking habits: Trees grow slower than our wine consumption.
I know all that. So although I am aware of all that, why do I hate screw caps so much?
You can say I am a traditional guy. I like sticking to traditions, especially to ones that are wine related. Maybe it has to do with living in Bordeaux. In my wine seminars and master classes I usually explain that wine is a pleasure for all our senses. The ear is short changed as it is. Its sole wine related pleasure is the clinking of the glasses (Cheers!) and the discreet and unique thump of a cork giving way to a corkscrew; of course handled by a thirsty wine lover. I personally don’t want to sacrifice 50% of my acoustic wine pleasure to be insulted by a brute and unpleasant CRACK of a screw cap.
Imagine being in a nice restaurant with your beloved one (or business relation, whatever works for you) and then the wine waiter (=sommelier) shows up: “Your wine sir, madam” and then this awful sound: CRACK when he opens the screw cap. My night would be screwed (if you’ll excuse my French).

There are other solutions of course.
For wines that are meant to age we need the real stuff, the real cork from Portugal and preferably a good quality one. All the other wines can use those (artificial) rubber corks. They do the job perfectly. They don’t spoil Portugal’s countryside, there are no “bad” corks amongst them and they give me my acoustical pleasure and of course a corkscrew experience.
So if the solution is that simple, why are wine makers still screwing around with screw caps? I will tell you why: The real problem is: nobody asks me!
My answer to these people: Screw them, but not my bottles!

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 18th, 2008 at 10:12 pm and is filed under Bordeaux Wine Tours, Bordeaux General Information. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.