We've all been there- at a restaurant ordering a bottle of wine acting like we know what we're on about, and then the waiter comes out with the bottle, pours you a bit, and you have to act like you know exactly what you're doing... How are you supposed to know if the wine is corked or not? I asked someone this when I was 18- the response was simply "oh you'll know!" Clearly not supplying me with enough information to answer any part of my question- but enough of a statement for me to never really think about it again... not until i did get a bottle that was corked... The tell tale sign is it smells like mould, or wet dog- basically it smells exactly like something you don't want to be drinking!
So this inevitably leads us to the age old (well maybe not all that age old... actually its a pretty recent debate...) debate.... Corks Vs Screw caps! Alright lets start by listing the advantages of Corks
- they look cooler than screw caps
- they make a better sound when you open them
- opening a bottle of wine with a cork give it a sense of ceremony
So there you have it the advantages of Corks... of course no matter how sound the Advantages sound- they don't really excuse the disadvantages do they? well there is only one real disadvantage- corked wine.
Now I'm not saying Screw Caps are great- apparently at a experiment carried out in Chateau Haut-Brion in 1970 they found that the corks worked perfectly for the first 10 years- but after that the threads wore a little thin and a tiny amount of Oxygen got in. So they are far from ideal yet. But whats most important is they're not far off. So what you loose some of that ceremony when opening a bottle. The Wine is there to be enjoyed- not to be celebrated.
That "ceremony" of opening a bottle with a cork... It evolved as a defense against bad corks! - You got to sniff the wine and send it back if the cork failed. You can still open a screw capped wine with the rest of the ceremony if you want...
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ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about how the "ceremony" came about- but what i was trying to say (and i'll be the first to admit i didn't do a great job of it...) is that even if they do discover some method of sealing a bottle that will ensure quality of all wine- then it would render the "ceremony" obsolete... but this isn't neccesarily the worst thing- basically i feel a good wine will always speaek for itself, even without all the fanfare around it!
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