The real capper: all bottled up

Author George M. Taber has made a career of being in the right place at the right time – be it interviewing politicos and rock stars (the Beatles among them) to being the sole journalist at the infamous 1976 Paris tasting, which brought California wines to global consciousness. Taber recounted the tale in his critically lauded tome “Judgment in Paris” currently being adapted into a feature film by “Fifth Element” scribe Robert Mark Kamen (a competing project, “Bottleshock,” was shot in Sonoma this past summer).
Having captured the wine world’s recent past, Taber now turns his journalistic eye, as well as his palate, to the industry’s future in “To Cork Or Not To Cork: Tradition, Romance, Science and the Battle for the Wine Bottle” published this month by Scribner.
An engaging, immersive read, Taber’s book delves headlong into the debate over which closure is superior – traditional corks, modern screwcaps, or novel closures such as the Zork and other recent antes into the fray – and why it’s so important for the wine, the industry and ultimately our enjoyment. How Taber came to what many may consider a rather arcane subject evolved naturally for the journalist.
“During my travels to wine areas around the world to research my last book, ‘Judgment of Paris,’ and in later talks with wine professionals, I noticed that the biggest topic of conversation was how to close a wine bottle. Not only was it topic numero uno, people were passionate about it. As Australian winemaker Brian Croser told me, it is like the wars of religion. People hate corks or they hate screwcaps. Few experts are neutral,” recounted Taber.
Corks have been the preferred means to seal wine bottles for nearly 500 years, according to Taber, who cites Spain and Portugal as the stopper’s largest producer, accounting for 75 percent of the world’s production. With the advent of new technologies and emerging trends in the market, the cork’s reign, however, is under siege.
“There are two driving factors. One is cost. Since cork had a monopoly on wine-bottle closures, there was no competition. With the worldwide boom in quality wine in the last four decades, the price of cork went up sharply. The second factor is damage done to wines through a process known as ‘corking’ or ‘cork taint,’” explained Taber. “When that happens, even the most expensive wine in the world can smell like wet newspapers and have an off taste.”
Experts argue about the prevalence of cork taint – some say one in a 100 bottles is affected, others contend that as many as one bottle per case of 12 could be blighted.
“Cork taint can be very subtle. Some experts recognize minute amounts of it, while others only notice it at very high levels. It takes just a little to ruin a bottle – two or three parts per trillion–and one part per trillion is the equivalent in time of one second in 320 centuries,” said Taber.
In the meantime, the debate continues – to cork or not to cork?
“There is no perfect solution. For a wine that’s made to be drunk young, like a sauvignon blanc, a screwcap is fine and convenient. For other wines, such as a cabernet sauvignon or a shiraz, which get better by aging in the bottle, a cork helps the wine age gracefully. We have entered the age of multiple wine closures, and that will be good for both wine consumer and wine makers.”