The Auswine Forum

Looks like the (red) bigot brothers aren't the only ones having a bad run of corks recently. From page 367 of the new 2008 TASTE Food & Wine, recounting the faulty bottles in the Great Australian Red 2007 tasting:

220 bottles (2 each of 110 wines), 146 sealed with screwcap, 70 with cork, remaining 4 in aluminium cans (!).

On the first pass there were 20 faulty bottles, 3 screw-capped (2%) and 17 corked (24.3%).

Of the replacement bottles, in two wines 3 in a row were corked, in another wine 4 in a row were corked and a different vintage of the same wine 3 in a row were corked! (They don't list these particular wines though). These wines were 2001-2006 viintage, mostly 2004-2006, so much for the cork industry cleaning up its act.

I can only agree with the authors: "This is utterly appalling!"

BTW, the winner is Wolf Blass Wines Black Label 2004, with a big mix of expensive and non-expensive wines in the medal count.

Seriously, with the following exceptions:

1. Fortified wines
2. Wendouree

I do not buy wines under cork any more. Ever. The above exceptions are made, only because there's no viable alternative. As soon as more appropriate closures are used by a couple of decent fortified makers, and by Wendouree (I won't hold my breath), I will ditch those stupid tree-bark plugs forever. Fosters (or was it Southcorp?) started in the right direction with the lower-end Seppelt fortifieds. With the sale of Seppeltsfield however, I don't expect that trend to continue

I'm with Roger Pike on this one. Anyone who thinks cork is an appropriate closure for wine is a stone-cold dufus (this is not actually a quote from Roger).

It seems odd to me that (almost) everyone complains about corks, but nobody is willing to make a stand and vote with their wallets. Well I am. I have better things to spend my money on than prematurely-oxidised, cardboard-flavoured vinegar.

My $0.02

Stuart

beef wrote:Seriously, with the following exceptions:

1. Fortified wines
2. Wendouree

I do not buy wines under cork any more. Ever. The above exceptions are made, only because there's no viable alternative. As soon as more appropriate closures are used by a couple of decent fortified makers, and by Wendouree (I won't hold my breath), I will ditch those stupid tree-bark plugs forever. Fosters (or was it Southcorp?) started in the right direction with the lower-end Seppelt fortifieds. With the sale of Seppeltsfield however, I don't expect that trend to continue

I'm with Roger Pike on this one. Anyone who thinks cork is an appropriate closure for wine is a stone-cold dufus (this is not actually a quote from Roger).

It seems odd to me that (almost) everyone complains about corks, but nobody is willing to make a stand and vote with their wallets. Well I am. I have better things to spend my money on than prematurely-oxidised, cardboard-flavoured vinegar.

My $0.02

Stuart

You would be surprised who is voting with their wallet. Take the disparity in sales for Seppelt Original Crownies.

cheers

Carl

beef wrote: Fosters (or was it Southcorp?) started in the right direction with the lower-end Seppelt fortifieds. With the sale of Seppeltsfield however, I don't expect that trend to continue
Stuart

James Godfrey commented that the only thing preventing him from going screwcap across the fortfied range was the availability of a quality bottle for fortifieds. Let's hope it comes soon.

Murray wrote:

beef wrote: Fosters (or was it Southcorp?) started in the right direction with the lower-end Seppelt fortifieds. With the sale of Seppeltsfield however, I don't expect that trend to continue
Stuart

James Godfrey commented that the only thing preventing him from going screwcap across the fortfied range was the availability of a quality bottle for fortifieds. Let's hope it comes soon.

** Nice to hear. I had assumed the use of screw-caps in their lower range was solely inspired by Fosters' apparent (and wonderful) company-wide policy.

From what I can tell, Kilkanoon still use a lot of cork. Hopefully they let Godfrey do as he pleases.

Stuart

griff wrote:

beef wrote:Seriously, with the following exceptions:

1. Fortified wines
2. Wendouree

I do not buy wines under cork any more. Ever. The above exceptions are made, only because there's no viable alternative. As soon as more appropriate closures are used by a couple of decent fortified makers, and by Wendouree (I won't hold my breath), I will ditch those stupid tree-bark plugs forever. Fosters (or was it Southcorp?) started in the right direction with the lower-end Seppelt fortifieds. With the sale of Seppeltsfield however, I don't expect that trend to continue

I'm with Roger Pike on this one. Anyone who thinks cork is an appropriate closure for wine is a stone-cold dufus (this is not actually a quote from Roger).

It seems odd to me that (almost) everyone complains about corks, but nobody is willing to make a stand and vote with their wallets. Well I am. I have better things to spend my money on than prematurely-oxidised, cardboard-flavoured vinegar.

My $0.02

Stuart

You would be surprised who is voting with their wallet. Take the disparity in sales for Seppelt Original Crownies.

cheers

Carl

** And yet, to date, I've not seen the '05 under crown seal anywhere.

Stuart

Murray wrote:

beef wrote: Fosters (or was it Southcorp?) started in the right direction with the lower-end Seppelt fortifieds. With the sale of Seppeltsfield however, I don't expect that trend to continue
Stuart

James Godfrey commented that the only thing preventing him from going screwcap across the fortfied range was the availability of a quality bottle for fortifieds. Let's hope it comes soon.

** Actually, why does a bottle need to be specific to fortified wines? Can't they just use bottles designed for table wines?

Stuart

beef wrote:** Actually, why does a bottle need to be specific to fortified wines? Can't they just use bottles designed for table wines?

Stuart

375ml and often a unique shape.

TORB wrote:

beef wrote:** Actually, why does a bottle need to be specific to fortified wines? Can't they just use bottles designed for table wines?

Stuart

375ml and often a unique shape.

** Plenty of table wines are sold in 375ml bottles (and plenty of fortifieds are sold in 750ml bottles). And why the unique shape?

IIRC, smithy uses the same bottles for his table wines as for his vintage port (though some might suggest that there's little separating the two styles).

Stuart

Stuart,

The majority of the top fortifieds are sold in 375ml bottles. Many have a different shape, long and thin - think Campbells Gold Top and Bullers.

TORB wrote:Stuart,

The majority of the top fortifieds are sold in 375ml bottles. Many have a different shape, long and thin - think Campbells Gold Top and Bullers.

But why? Apart from asthetics and a perceived originality, what is the reason? Is it such a drama to use existing 375mL and 750mL bottles that are used for table wines? If so, what are those reasons?

michaelw wrote:

TORB wrote:Stuart,

The majority of the top fortifieds are sold in 375ml bottles. Many have a different shape, long and thin - think Campbells Gold Top and Bullers.

But why? Apart from asthetics and a perceived originality, what is the reason? Is it such a drama to use existing 375mL and 750mL bottles that are used for table wines? If so, what are those reasons?

Michael, unless you are Bill Chambers and have to keep upping the price of the ordinary-looking half-bottles of your top fortifieds to keep the demand down to a manageable level most others want to try to stand out in the crowd.

It's hard enough to sell some fortifieds (esp "sherry", "tawny" and some of the muscats and tokays) without them looking "ordinary". It might not matter to you (or me) but it seems to for a lot of people. Some people want a fancy package to go with a high-priced wine.

I used to buy a bit of the very good and incredibly good value Lauriston Show Muscat when it was in an ordinary bottle (750ml), then they moved to a fancier 500ml bottle and kept the price the same and then bumped it up a bit after a while. It's probably still good value, but I stopped buying it when they did that, I assume plenty of people replaced me lured by the fancy new package.

I'm just waiting for de Bortoli to wake up and do the same with their great value Show Muscat.

Anyone know the price difference with Corks and screw tops

I spent 12 months in Croatia in 2005 in a small wine making area about 45 mins north or Dubrovnik



anyway they only do small quantities

( thank god because i was picking carting squashing making)

and when they were bottling some of the prior vinbtages it was done by way of cork which was very inexpensive

not sure screw tops have hit there yet so would be interested if anyone know costs

also very easy to cork a bottle what is involved in the screw top