Screw cap wine bottles

[jsmahoney]

I have several purchasedcommercialwine bottles that are beatifully printed with grape vineson the bottle (not paper labels). These bottles are screw caps. I would like to use them for bottleling my wine. Can I use these for bottleing my wine using corks (9X1.75) and still feel confident that they will last. I guess as long as the cork is flush or below I'd be fine.

Also would it befeasible to reuse the screw cap, as long as you tighten "very tightly"?

Probably not! Just would like some of your opinions! Thanks ahead of time.

 

[Wade E]

You might want to be very careful as they may not be designed for corks and the bottle may crack.

 

[jobe05]

JS: Normally, screw top bottle are thin at the top, and like Wade says, may break. I would guess, that if sanitized properly, and kept for short periods of time, you could reuse the cap that cam with the bottle. I have never looked, but could one buy new tops for these?

 

[jsmahoney]

I think I would rather be safe than sorry!

Such a shame, they are very nice!

Thanks!

 

[grapeman]

I tried using a few of these type bottles. The corks go in ok, but 2 out of 3 bottles broke off while trying to uncork them. I decided it wasn't worth the lost wine to try to use them. Like you say, there are some really fancy ones out there. There must be some screw caps available somewhere for them, because they used screw caps already.

 

[PolishWineP]

Skip the corks (VERY dangerous!

) and just use the caps that came with the bottles. We do it all the time. My parents did it. Just be sure the caps are fully cleaned and sanitized. The advantage of these bottles is that they don't have to lay on their sides! They can stand up and boogie till the cows come home or you drink them.

We won't use them for really long term storage but otherwise they are good to go in our house.

 

[jsmahoney]

Thanks to all!

I will take all the advise, I was worried they'd break putting the cork into the bottle. I never even thought for the afterwards effect of taking them out. I'm glad though I will be able to use them in short term. After all that wine I drank to empty the bottlesso I could refill them with my wine just didn't seem right.

 

[pkcook]

jsmahoney,


I found this article and thought you might enjoy it. The end part is especially noteworthy.If a Plumpjack isn't afraid to put it's $145 bottle of Cab Sav in ascrew top bottle, then there must be something good about the screwcap. Just not very classy!



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<H1 align=center><A name="Corks vs. Screw Caps">Corks vs. Screw Caps</A></H1></TH></TR>
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Did you know that 3%-5% of all bottles with natural corks show some degree of spoilage. This is due to trichloroanisole (TCA). TCA is a complex chemical developed from reactions within corks, which involve natural molds and the chlorine bleach used in cork manufacture. So, what's the answer? Plastic?

For the last decade or so, there have been plenty of cork substitutes on the market. Some wineries have converted their entire production to synthetic corks. New technologies have greatly improved synthetic corks. But, there are still problems with synthetic corks, especially the plastic ones. Even good corkscrews have problems punching through the denser plastics. If you consider it, the only reason to use a substitute cork is to preserve the ritual of pulling a stopper out of the wine bottle.
The very best closure for wine has been around for years. It's easy to use, requires no tools, is airtight and easily re-sealable. What is this magical device? The screw cap, of course. "But wait!" you're saying. "Doesn't the slow passage of oxygen through a porous stopper help wines age and develop bottle bouquet?" That myth has been debunked. In fact, the screw cap makes the perfect wine closure : no taint, no oxidation, no problem.



The New Zealand wine industry was the first to adopt screw caps en masse. Market-conscious American wineries are still testing the treacherous waters of public opinion on the subject, bottling part of their lineup in screw cap, just to see. The high-end PlumpJack Winery put half its $145 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2000 in screw cap and found that the newfangled version sold out first. Its just released Reserve Chardonnay 2003 ($44) is also available in screw cap. A few major American producers, including Pepi, Bonny Doon, and Hogue have taken the plunge. Europeans are proving less receptive, but Gunderloch, in Germany, and Fortant, in France, are game. </TD></TR></T></TABLE>

 

[Coaster]

I wonder what this means for the home bottler. I am sure the change won't occur over nite but either corking bottles will get expensive as most producers go to screw tops or there will have to be a home bottling solution.

 

[NorthernWinos]

A screw top just isn't very romantic...but if that's what's to come there better be good supplies of new screw tops available for us to use...

Edited by: Northern Winos

 

[sangwitch]

I wonder what this means for the home bottler. I am sure the change won't occur over nite but either corking bottles will get expensive as most producers go to screw tops or there will have to be a home bottling solution.

I've been wondering about that myself Coaster. Romance aside, the screw caps are a superior method of closure and more and more wineries are going to head in that direction. A walk through the wine shop shows that many are already there. And marketing is being aimed at a younger "hipper" crowd now with wines like 'Fat Bastard', 'Big House Red', 'Big Yellow Cab', etc. I think the new marketing will contribute to the increase of screw cap use. Incidentally, last year was the first year that wine beat out beer in an annual poll of "alcoholic beverage of choice". (I think Gallup did the poll)


I know there will be hold-outs, but if enough wineries go to screw cap it could make it harder for us to get bottles. A friend of mine gave me sixty bottles yesterday and six of them were screw cap - that's ten percent.


Hmmm.... I'm curious about what a home solution would look like. I wonder if anyone is approaching that yet. Anyone know?

 

[Funky Fish]

You know, I read the article that pkcook posted, and I just have to ask: has anyone here had cork taint in their bottles (if you use synthetic, this question doesn't apply to you).


I've had several hundred bottles of wine, homemade, plus countless others that were store-bought, and I've only come across one bottle that had cork taint. By the numbers that were given in the article on the first page, I should have come across more tainted wines.


What's that mean? I don't know, but I do believe that, with improved cork processing and better handling, cork taint isn't as rampant as it used to be. Perhaps the synthetic and screw cap manufacturers are playing with old numbers to try and sell their product. Perhaps the natural cork producers would find this article interesting:
http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/hi/news/5057312.html

 

[Coaster]

"I wonder if anyone is approaching that yet. Anyone know? "


I wishI could figure this out, might be worth some $$

 

[sangwitch]

Hmmm... very interesting FF. I wish the article had some more data though. They say out of 13,000 blind tastings 4% of corked wine was tainted and 2% of capped wine was tainted, but I'm wondering of the 13,000 wines tasted, whatpercentage were corked and what percentage were capped. Also, what was the quality of the wine. I wonder how much "tainted" wine is already tainted, or beginning to taint, at the time of bottling. ?? All very interesting and it will be even more so to see how this all plays out in the years ahead.