Screw caps for Alsace grand cru; first time ever!
Date: Wednesday, January 17 @ 05:49:16 MST
Topic: Wine classifications AOC - Grand Crus...
For the first time ever, screw-capped Grand Cru wine from Alsace will be sold commercially in major markets, including the UK, said Alsatian winemaker Frederic Blanck of the well-known Domaine Paul Blanck in Kientzheim.
Blanck, who has been selling lower tier wines under screw cap since 2001, will sell the 2005 vintage of his Riesling Schlossberg Grand Cru without cork closures in the UK, the US, Australia and other markets, ‘though probably not yet in France, because the French are not as open minded about this as they should be,’ he said.
‘People should remember that after the steam engine, there was electricity,’ remarked Blanck sarcastically, and condemned the ‘irrational attachment’ to corks. He plans to sell about 60% of his wine – about 140,000 bottles – under screw cap next year.
‘I have never seen wine improved by corks, but too often wine ruined by corks,’ he added, explaining that corks lose their effectiveness over time and have to be replaced, while screw caps can last indefinitely.
He drove the point home over lunch at a restaurant in nearby Kaysersberg, where he served two Riesling Patergarden 2001 wines blind: one under screw cap, the other with cork. While the former had a slightly more evolved nose and palate, the latter possessed greater verve and complexity.
‘Wines under screw cap do evolve more slowly, but it is a myth to think that they cannot evolve at all because they are completely hermetic,’ he explained, pulling out a copy of an article in the March 2006 issue of La Vigne, a technical French wine magazine.
The article summarized results of a two-year study from Bordeaux’s wine faculty, which showed that screw caps are porous, if only slightly, and much less so than corks are.
Blanck stressed that a wine evolves according to reduction, and not so much according to the porous nature of corks: ‘Indeed, corks cannot maintain their hermetic function indefinitely and create greater risks for wine – not to mention ‘the inevitable and immediate chance of opening a corked bottle or two in the wine case you buy.’
He also cited other studies to support his argument, such as a four-year study by Hogue Cellars in Washington State, which concluded in 2004 that screw cap closures hold fruit and maintain freshness more effectively than natural and synthetic corks.
02 april 2006
Panos Kakaviatos
http://www.wineint.com
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