| Bill |
http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/D...45,2526,00.html
Hogue Cellars has just presented a study to the
American Society of Enology and viticulture conference,
held in San Diego last week. They concluded that Stelvin
closures were the way to go. The surprise to me was not
the 18% rate of tainted natural corks but that they found
that the wine preserved with synthetic corks tended to
oxidize after about two years. They also found that bottles
with natural cork stoppers aged inconsistently depending on
the seal of the cork.
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| Michael Pronay |
Bill <william.loftin@verizon.net> wrote:
> The surprise to me was not the 18% rate of tainted natural corks
> but that they found that the wine preserved with synthetic corks
> tended to oxidize after about two years.
This is no surprise - here in Austria nearly everybody knows that.
M.
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| Mark Lipton |
Bill wrote:
> http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/D...45,2526,00.html
>
> Hogue Cellars has just presented a study to the
> American Society of Enology and viticulture conference,
> held in San Diego last week. They concluded that Stelvin
> closures were the way to go. The surprise to me was not
> the 18% rate of tainted natural corks but that they found
> that the wine preserved with synthetic corks tended to
> oxidize after about two years. They also found that bottles
> with natural cork stoppers aged inconsistently depending on
> the seal of the cork.
Thanks, Bill. Their conclusions (aside from the very high spoilage
rate) seem in line with those of the ongoing Aussie study. Re the
synthetic corks: I've seen this firsthand with a Siduri PN that was
foolishly bottled under syncork. The reason is that *some* types of
synthetic cork consume the sulfites used to preserve the wine. Someone
here (Mark W or TomS perhaps?) mentioned not too long ago that newer
types of synthetic cork didn't suffer from that drawback -- though
they're still hell to pull out, I'd wager.
Mark Lipton
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| st.helier |
Just a little aside, the Villa Maria Group, NZs second largest producer
which incorporates the Villa Maria; Vidal and Esk Valley labels has made the
decision to do away with cork altogether - even in their premium reds.
Mark, this means that even wines like the Villa Maria Reserve Pinot Noir and
the Esk Valley Reserve Merlot and "The Terraces" will be bottled under
Stelvin.
Many NZ wineries are using Stelvin to close their aromatic wines, but stick
to cork for their chardonnays and their red wines.
But, with producers like Kumeu River also going 100% the Stelvin way, and
more wineries gearing up to bottle thus, it won't be long before cork users
are in the minority.
--
st.helier
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| Mark Lipton |
st.helier wrote:
> Just a little aside, the Villa Maria Group, NZs second largest producer
> which incorporates the Villa Maria; Vidal and Esk Valley labels has made the
> decision to do away with cork altogether - even in their premium reds.
>
> Mark, this means that even wines like the Villa Maria Reserve Pinot Noir and
> the Esk Valley Reserve Merlot and "The Terraces" will be bottled under
> Stelvin.
Most interesting, milud, and I salute them for their forward-thinking
policies. It makes the cork-finished Palliser 2003 SBs I just purchased
all the more mystifying. Why not Stelvin for them? Their 2002s came in
Stelvin, but to date all the 2003s were cork-finished!
Mark Lipton
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| st.helier |
"Mark Lipton" wrote in message
> Most interesting, milud, and I salute them for their
> forward-thinking policies.
> It makes the cork-finished Palliser 2003 SBs I just purchased
> all the more mystifying.
> Why not Stelvin for them? Their 2002s came in
> Stelvin, but to date all the 2003s were cork-finished!
Like quite a few NZ exporters, they have bowed to "pressure" from some of
their export clients and have bottled a small quantity under cork.
For the domestic market, Palliser is bottled solely under Stelvin; it would
not surprise if, like the Villa Maria Group, they do away with cork
altogether.
--
st.helier
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