August 29, 2023 – Facebook is always good for a rousing discussion. And when it’s led by John Benedetti of Sante Arcangeli Winery, you know it’s going to generate a lot of action.
So when Benedetti announced that he was releasing his 2022 Chardonnay entirely under screw cap, the lovers and haters came out with opinions a-plenty. Most were in support, but there were a few who sang in praise of cork, including Ian Brand—an early adopter of screw caps for his aromatic whites and rosé, and then eventually all his reds, but says he “couldn’t stand the aesthetics,” and was disappointed in the way the wines aged…or actually, didn’t. Pressure Seal Cap Liner
Jim Schultze of Windy Oaks prefers cork and pays extra for the corks that are tested for TCA, the chemical compound responsible for cork taint. He’s not about to change course any time soon.
Richard Alfaro, however, says he bottled his 2021 vintage half in screw cap and half with Nomacorc, a sugar cane alternative to cork. He’s experienced many corked wines with the “individual” tested corks that are supposed to be TCA-free, and says, “They are absolutely not taint free.”
Benedetti, who has also been paying extra for allegedly taint free corks concurs, saying that he’s still found TCA contaminated bottles. He also points to his frustration with the amount of bottle aging under cork.
“I am still seeing cork taint at rates I’m not comfortable with, alongside inconsistent oxygen ingress in the wines, which results in bottle variation and sometimes poor aging potential.” He bemoans the American perception that screw cap enclosures indicate cheap wine. If the screw caps work as he hopes, he plans to migrate other wines over to screwcaps or Nomacorc.
Sam Miller of Rexford says his own testing experiments have proven bottle variation with screw caps is far less than with cork. “We’ve been all screw cap since 2010. Our first two vintages (‘08 and ‘09) we did trials: cork, Saranex and Saran tin caps from the same stage of bottling. At 6 months, there was not much difference, but by the time we got two years in, the cork bottles were obviously inferior. At five years, dramatically so. I think caps are superior for the aging of wine and have been enjoying our 2010 Fambrini Pinot sealed with them lately, wishing we had more of it. They are much more consistent bottle to bottle than I expect from cork.”
New Zealand winemakers are big fans of screw caps and a good 95% of them use screw caps for all their wines, including high end reds, with about 75% of Australian winemakers doing the same. They’ve convinced their audience that there is no correlation between wine quality, price and closure: if it’s good wine, it’s good wine, and if it’s a good wine with a bad cork, well, bummer, matey. Shoulda screwed it instead.
Although this discussion has been going on for years, it is suddenly quite timely again, as Ryan Beauregard and I were just discussing closures as we tasted through his wine lineup, which includes the excellent 2021 Coast Grade and Beauregard Ranch Pinot Noirs, and the 2021 Bald Mountain and Beauregard Ranch Chardonnays. All are finished with cork and then dipped in wax.
Beauregard wants to avoid putting more stuff into the landfill, so he chose to ditch the capsules and use wax instead. “It’s a labor of love, but it’s incredibly time-consuming,” he told me.
“Literally, my guys can only do two pallets of wine in a day. If we skipped the wax, they could do seven. That’s a lot of wasted labor, and it’s also three plus days they are not in the field.”
He’s done with wax, for sure. And he’s really intrigued by screw caps. After saving a special bottle for years to share with cousins visiting from Australia, it turned out to be corked. He’s thinking about putting screw caps on his entire wine lineup, including the $100 Cabernet Sauvignon. Of course, he worries about pushback, but I don’t think he should.
Every winemaker is entitled to their opinion, though, as is every consumer.
There are a few indisputable facts in favor of screw caps, despite the loyalty of cork lovers to the romance of a corkscrew—or perhaps several, depending on the state of that wonderful piece of bark you are trying to extract. Never do you have to worry about a cork being tainted with the dreaded TCA, or the cork being ever so slightly musty, or the cork leaking which leads to oxidation (bark corks are porous and have imperfections) or the cork getting completely soaked through due to storage issues (exposure to heat or cold), or the cork potentially falling apart on an older bottle, which can render a romantic endeavor into an evening-ruining mess. Always carry more than one type of corkscrew when you are dealing with wines older than a decade.
Screwcapped wines are so pleasant to open at busy events because, Voila! It’s over and done, and let’s get to the fun! No drama, no mess. Rarely do screwcapped wines require a judging panel at a competition to send back a suspiciously corky or musty wine for a second bottle to be tested. That said, if a wine was bad when it went into a bottle, regardless of the closure, it’s still going to be bad.
Screw caps make an open bottle of wine inherently easier to store and reopen, and it keeps an open bottle far fresher, far longer. If you do a lot of traveling, having screwcaps is convenient, as open screwcapped bottles fare better on their sides in coolers then their corky counterparts.
But aside from the peace of mind and the convenience, there’s another overriding reason to go with screw caps, and that’s ultimately to preserve the quality of the wine that’s going into the bottle. Winemakers work so hard to make a good product. It’s like making a beautiful automobile. Every part of it must be perfectly honed and aligned. Imagine you send this brilliant piece of automotive art out into the world and a wheel falls off 5 or 6% of the time. That’s what happens if a beautiful bottle ends up being cork tainted. If you bought that wine directly from a local producer, they will generally replace it, but what if you bought it at a big box chain or grocery store or Total Wine? Are they going to replace it?
I applaud John’s decision to bottle a pristine and lovely Chardonnay under screw cap, and all the other wineries who’ve gone this route to retain freshness in their whites, among them Alfaro, CRU, J. Lohr, Morgan, Bonny Doon Vineyard, Scheid and Ser. It makes total sense to use screw caps for aromatic whites, because even a small amount of wet cork can detract from the delicacy and nuances of those wines. It’s one reason I never buy imported whites with corks: too many possibilities of things getting lost in translation during transoceanic shipping. Screw caps give peace of mind that the wine at least performs as the winemaker intended.
In addition to Rexford, Talbott has bottled all their wines, across all price points, under screw cap, since Robb Talbott experienced a corked bottle of an esteemed white Burgundy he’d been saving to share with a select group of international wine royalty at an event. He never wanted that same fate to befall a customer who had purchased one of his high-end wines. Or any of his wines. Another long-term convert, Larry Shaffer of Tercero, went to all screw cap in 2006, for both white and red wines.
Ok, we’re going to get a little geeky here, because it’s important. Screw caps have liner choices that allow you to decide how much oxygen you want to let into the bottles. There’s Saran™ tin, made from a single layer of low density expanded polyethylene foam (EPE) followed by two layers of low-density polyethylene film (LDPE) with aluminum foil layers and PET film barrier. It presents the best barrier to oxygen, so the wine is preserved as is. Use these if you want as little oxygen as possible to seep in. This is the choice for aromatic white wines and rosés, when you want to maximize and preserve freshness. It can also be great for chillable reds that are meant to be consumed early.
The other choice is the Saranex liner, which is made from a single central layer of low density expanded polyethylene foam (EPE) laminated on both sides with SX film (PE-PVDC-PE). It allows more oxygen to pass through. These can be suitable on wines for which you want to allow some oxygen influence. Many winemakers choose these for reds that will benefit from development.
There are some important chemistry adjustments that need to be made when bottling with screw caps vs corks. Basically, you need to add less S02 before bottling than you would if you’re using a cork closure. This is because you’re not worrying about oxygen getting in and ruining the party.
Sometimes wines bottled with Saran tin liners can show a reductive quality upon opening, especially if they have been in the bottle for a couple of years. Generally, this blows off.
Beauregard points out that this is due to trapped S02, which is generally added to wine before bottling. With a Saran tin liner, there is very little exchange of air, so the S02 can get trapped, leading to a reductive aroma that simply requires air contact to dissipate. By lowering the S02 level at bottling time, this can be avoided.
Many winemakers still struggle with the issue of consumer perception. More consumers are buying screw caps than ever, and getting used to the idea that closures have no correlation to price point. There are cheap wines under composite corks, just as there are under screwcap. And expensive wines with composite and plastic corks, too.
Rexford’s Miller says the market is much more receptive than it was 10 years ago. “When we first started using screw caps, many people wanted to talk about our use of caps; today it’s few, except for the regulars who tell us how much they like them.”
My Dad, who used to pooh-pooh screwcaps as being cheap, now loves them. He’s tired of musty wines with crappy corks. “Please tell the winemakers out there that they should all go to screw caps. There are a lot of old guys like me that don’t want to mess with a corkscrew. And the corks never go back into the damn bottles. Screw caps are the best thing to ever happen to wine.”
Laura Ness is a longtime wine journalist, columnist and judge who contributes regularly to Edible Monterey Bay, Spirited, WineOh.Tv, Los Gatos Magazine and Wine Industry Network, and a variety of consumer publications. Her passion is telling stories about the intriguing characters who inhabit the fascinating world of wine and food.
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