The Wine Knows

Paul,

I think that screwcaps have become more mainstream in the past few years, as shown in the U.K.'s largest grocery chain.

The sooner the media treat screwcaps as "normal," the sooner they'll become normal.

I traveled back home for a large family reunion over the week. i was in charge of getting the wines for the event since I was the "expert". We had wines from WA, CA and Argentina.(45-50 bottles) About 10 had screwcaps. As a bit of a test, I didn't open any of the wines, but let people pick what they'd like to drink. After the first round several of the ones which had corks were pulled, but nobody opened any of the ones that had screwcaps. Interesting. These people were wine drinkers, but really only enjoy wine once or twice a week. I'd consider them just below average wine drinkers. I opened some of the screw caps so people might try them since they were opened. I remember one comment was "This wine isn't bad for one with a screw cap."
I think out of wine circles, (unlike people on this list and in the biz) people still have a strong "phobia" against screwcaps. They haven't seen the light like some. The perception seems to be that the wine is of a lesser quality. Many remember they younger days when Jug wines and Boonsfarm were the wines we bought because they were cheap and its what everyone else was drinking.
I am not sure how to change the phobia about screwcaps. I think it will take sometime. Again we have seen the light and know the quality can be there. People have been drinking wine from bottles with corks in them for almost 500 years. I think if you look out of the wine circle, mainstream wine drinkers will prefer corks over screwcaps. The numbers show the trend is increasing.

David

PS I personally like screwcaps. Its just one more step away from glass bottles and a more efficient package overall.

On a side not, I went to a friends birthday back home were we grilled out and had burgers and brats. He told me he'd take care of the wine and would get some "good stuff". Yeah, he bought a case of BoonesFarm. (I'll hold any further comments on the subject.)

BTW How many here buy boxed wine? There are some great wines out there I am told, but I haven't had boxed wine since Matilda Bay back in college.

Hey there!

Interesting screw top conversation and observations. I personally don't care what a bottle is closed with, as long as it works! We have been hitting our Walla Walla stash lately, and several wines had screwtops. They were all great!

Regarding box wines, we do occasionally buy boxed wines. Black Box seems to be the most successful to us, although we haven't obviously tried them all. A few that I can vouch for are the Black Box Sonoma merlot (very nice with a hint of spice!) and their Paso Robles cabernet sauvignon. It is a fairly big wine, with that classic super ripe blackberry/plum profile that Paso Robles wines tend to have, without veering towards prune or raisin. It tastes almost like there is a little residual sugar in it, but I believe it is dry. I think it is simply the very ripe fruit fooling my palate. My only quibble with this wine is that the acids could be a little brighter to offset the ripe fruit, but for the money, it does a great job. We have had a few box wines from different producers but none of them really thrilled me that much. They were serviceable, and fine for a party after we have finished the "good stuff". And for the price? You can't beat them! Plus, they do stay fresher, although I think the three weeks that the box wine producers claim is a little far fetched. About a week or so is all I would go.

There ya be! Two more cents worth...

Cheers!
Tim

It will take some doing to get long-time wine drinkers over the screw cap predjudice, but there are angles. For example, the young folks at Balboa seem to be aiming for a young, hip customer with their unusual graphics, sparce but animated web site, etc., and so, in the way that they are approaching their marketing, I can imagine the screw cap actually being a "plus" rather than a "minus" for them, especially since the low-cost closure helps them keep their wines less than $20 (and a handy flat $20, including tax, at the tasting room). Likewise the young Trey Busch at Sleight of Hand. In any case, it's such a cheap thrill to unscrew a great bottle of wine and have it in a glass in single-digit seconds...

There are different kinds of screwcaps. One kind doesn't have any kind of ability to transfer oxygen, while another (the one used by Hogue) does.

Thus, wines under threads have just as much of a chance to age as those under corks - with the exception of cork taint.