Cork taint

Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum

Help Support Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Tom

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 6, 2006
Messages
11,355
Reaction score
110
F Y I
I fount this in the net.

Champagne corks on the way out?

The new metallic cork is expected to reduce production losses
A leading champagne producer plans to phase out the traditional cork in its bottles and replace it with a "revolutionary" metallic cap.

The design of the new aluminium stopper for champagne house Duval-Leroy remains a closely guarded secret.

But the new cork will, it is promised, still produce the familiar "pop" and spray beloved of generations of racing drivers on the winner's podium.

It will be presented at the London International Wine Fair in May.

The new device will first appear on a limited number of Duval-Leroy's Clos des Bouveries range to test market reaction.

A spokesman for the family-owned champagne house said their primary aim was to avoid incidences of cork tainting, according to the wine magazine Decanter.

Cork tainting occurs chiefly when a chemical known as TCA contaminates the wine, usually from the cork.

It is estimated that metallic screw caps account for 15% of still wine bottle closures worldwide.

:(
 
Wonder why they didn't go with the plastic cap/corks. They are the same shape as the corks and pop as ewll.
 
pretty much all the bottles available in NZ are screwcap.

I found this on the web.. just out of interest on the Morton Estate website entire article here ..

http://www.mortonestatewines.co.nz/index.php/ps_pagename/newsdetail/pi_newsitemid/76 )

DURATION
The length of time a wine can be matured for will depend on the wine style
and the closure used to seal the bottle. It¹s an unfortunate fact of life
that many wine producers must often release wine before it has reached the
peak of development and that consumers will never see the wine at its peak
due to consuming it close to purchase time.

As a general rule, white wine will not age as long as red wine. This is due
to the tannins in red wines that act as antioxidants and which give red wine
its longevity. During the process of protecting the wine from oxidation,
these tannins undergo reactions that make the wine softer and fuller. White
wines lack tannins and so rely on sulphur dioxide to preserve them. Once
the sulphur dioxide is exhausted the wine then undergoes oxidation and loses
its character. Sweet wines, commonly referred to as "stickies", are the
exception to the rule as they age extremely well.

Screwcaps have now been found to preserve the freshness and vibrancy of
white wines far longer than cork.

In fact, it is now quite feasible to age say, a Riesling, for twenty five years and have that wine develop, but not oxidize, into a lovely, aged wine. It is quite likely that if this wine had been under cork that it would have been either oxidized or corked after that length of time.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top