Should Wine be Bottled like Beer?

[KMP]

In the most recent issue of Wines and Vines English wine writer Jamie Goode has a very readable article on Oxygen and Wine. Jamie covers several aspects including a research initiative being funded by Nomacorc, bottle closures and the technology being used to measure oxygen in wine. One of his conclusions is that the variability of oxygen pickup during bottling can be a significant problem for wine. But the most interesting point he discusses is that the beer industry has spent considerable time and effort to avoid the presence of oxygen in its product. In relating this to wine Jamie notes

George Crochiere gives some examples of the sorts of levels of oxygen that might be introduced to wine bottles during different filling procedures. In the worst-case scenario, a gravity-filled bottle sealed with a cork without any vacuum will pick up 2.6ppm oxygen during filling and have a further 1.8ppm oxygen in the headspace, giving a total of 4.4ppm.

If a vacuum filler is used and the headspace is evacuated, this figure will fall to just under 1ppm. If a screwcap is used and the bottle is filled using a vacuum filler, then pick-up in bottle filling is 0.6ppm. If liquid nitrogen dosing is used, headspace pickup is 0.7ppm; without this it is as high as 4.75ppm, giving an initial TPO (Total Pack Oxygen) of 5.36ppm. Crochiere points out that in the beer industry, the best-run bottling lines give oxygen pick-ups of between 0.05 and 0.15ppm, while average lines are 0.2-0.4ppm.

Obviously bottling under a vacuum and using a screwcap cuts the level of oxygen dramatically but not to the level of the best bottling achieved with beer. Even an average beer bottling line reaches levels that are better than the best wine practices. So why is wine not bottled like beer?

Clearly one argument is that we still don’t know what level of oxygen wine requires especially for maturation (cellaring). And we also don’t know whether different wines may need different levels of oxygen when placed in bottle. There are companies producing liners for screwcap that allow different levels of oxygen to pass. Different levels of oxygen, that does make the imagination wander. Just picture, one day Penfolds Grange may come in screwcaps of different colors. One color will signify a liner that allows little or no oxygen ingress/egress so you can cellar the wine for decades, another color may signify a liner that allow a little oxygen to enter so that maturation is hastened over a decade or less, and another may let in even more so that you can quaff your Grange as soon as you get it home from the wine store. And, of course, seeing as the Fosters Group makes both beer and wine your Grange for the cellar is likely to come with a twist top crown seal!

Enjoy,
Mike

[BigBob]

Beer is carbonated, making oxygen ingress a lot tougher as you already have a pretty well gas saturated liquid at filling.

They also have smaller headspaces, very fast bottling lines, small bottles etc. making their life a little easier.

[odyssey]

Your last paragraph commentary is fascinating, but in regards to the original quote, lets not forget that with the vast majority of beers the lifespan is incredibly short relative to wine. The rare ones that are made to mature are usually bottled champagne-style (and cost as much).

[Waiters Friend]

Your last paragraph commentary is fascinating, but in regards to the original quote, lets not forget that with the vast majority of beers the lifespan is incredibly short relative to wine. The rare ones that are made to mature are usually bottled champagne-style (and cost as much).

Only a few are bottled with champagne cork, however. The majority (even larger format beer bottles) are crown sealed. The parallel with the wine industry (i.e. after disgorgement, apply another crown seal) should be there - so why does the wine industry persist with the corks?

For example, Domaine Chandon ZD (Zero Dosage) comes crown-sealed. Apart from the romanticism of the 'pop', I'd suggest this should be industry standard.

[KMP]

There is the other side of the coin where in order to go up market you make and bottle beer as though its Champagne!

Mike