No closure to this debate

Gather just a small group of winelovers around a table with a few bottles of wine, or the larger and more formal situation of a wine competition (especially when there’s an Australian on the panel); on both the question of closures inevitably pops up.

It did so at this year’s Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show and invited discussion at a degree of liveliness not experienced for a while. According to the show chairman, Michael Fridjhon, the incidence in taint of entries under cork was around 10%. This figure reflects the situation of around two years ago but is in effect worse, given the increase in entries closed with screwcaps. I don’t have a breakdown of the total but of the 31 gold medals, 10 are screwcap closed, 21 under cork (I have no figure for conglomarates).

Is there such an item as a perfect closure for wine? One that is effective as well as aesthetically pleasing? Whatever one’s preference, I doubt anyone believes the ultimate closure has yet been produced. Personally, I like natural cork both from its naturalness and the satisfying plunk sound when a cork is extracted from the bottle but that counts for nothing when the wine is spoiled by cork taint. I can equally live very happily with screwcaps, except for their carbon footprint.

These are but two issues producers grapple with when making those all-important decisions; the market is another and very important one. While Tom Carson, the Australian judge at this year’s Trophy Wine Show, couldn’t understand why screwcaps haven’t been more widely adopted here, local producers approach the switch with a bit more caution.

To find out just some of the pros and cons, I asked some of this year’s gold medal winners.

It is precisely market demands that sees Rustenberg’s Stellenbosch Shiraz closed with cork, except all exports to Australia, “where even our flagship red, Peter Barlow Cabernet, is bottled under screwcap”, advise the winemaking team. Generally, all would prefer screwcap, “but when it comes to reds there are markets such as mainland Europe and the US, which are much more vocal and stubborn than with whites”. The whole white wine range has been under screwcap since 2009, making the Five Soldiers Chardonnay one of the most expensive closed in this manner. “We see a massive benefit to screwcaps,” they insist, “they are taint free and the wines age consistently, are fresher and more complete.”

At Diemersfontein, Francois Roode has trialled wines under both closures, but prefers how their more serious wines age under cork. “Screwcaps,” he explains, “are kept for our earlier drinking wines.”

Graham Beck’s Erika Obermeyer, winemaker of Bowed Head Chenin Blanc, also prefers the benefits of cork for ageing, as with this wine, but isn’t averse to screwcaps, which she believes “are definitely the best closure for protection of fruit”.

It’s not the closure that’s causing Nuy’s Christo Pienaar headaches but the change in bottle shape. “Our customers are used to cork and I personally feel comfortable with it, but what they’re not happy with is the new, more elegant, long bottle which has replaced the traditional short, squat jerepigo bottle!”

As my headline suggests, there really is no closure to this debate!

– Angela Lloyd