The Wine Knows

Heard back from Ste. Michelle Wine Estates today: Columbia Crest has been using Nomacorcs only on the Two Vines Riesling and Gewurztraminer for a while and has no further plans to expand the use into other wines.

The only other wines in the Ste. Michelle portfolio to use alternative closures are most of the releases from Erath Vineyards in Oregon (Dick Erath switched almost completely to screwcaps before the sale to Ste. Michelle) and Saint M, the German Riesling made for Ste. Michelle by Ernst Loosen (also under screwcaps - Loosen is a big proponent of alternative closures).

I have inquired on occasion about whether the company plans to make any changes to its closures, and I've gotten no indications that CEO Ted Baseler wants to move heavily toward screwcaps or synthetics.