Compared to what I did three years ago, I know an enormous amount about wines, but.... compared to our wine-making friends, I know a miniscule amount.
The thing that gets me about wine and tastings is the pretentiousness that can be involved and the intimidation factor.
Don't ever let anyone make you feel inferiour or intimidated by your wine knowledge.
This brings me to this:
Screw Top Wine Bottle
Yes.
A screw top wine bottle.
The rage of the future.
Corkless Bottle
I don't know what I am going to do with all of my fancy cork screws, but they are not long for this world.
What To Do With The Wine Openers?
The purpose of a cork is quite simple: to keep the wine inside the bottle and to seal out the air.
When I first went to Napa Valley, I learned about smelling and tasting and swirling and one of the main things that I remember from that first lesson, oh.......eight years ago or more, is that you NEVER, ever, EVER, smell the cork. A true wine connoisseur simply looks at a cork to view whether it has been stored correctly and an amateur is spotted easily if he smells a cork.
You never want to see that the wine has "bled" on the cork. You look to make sure it has been stored properly.
Imagine my surprise, when our winemaker friends always smelled the corks!
Yes.
They put the cork to their nose and smell it.
I have witnessed on THREE occasions that they poured the wine down the sink after smelling the cork. They smelled something like mildew or moldy and that meant that the wine was "corked".
It is estimated that 3 to 7 percent--of wines are ruined, or at least compromised from a quality perspective, by tainted corks. This is especially true in restaurants, where heat can be an issue.
BACTERIA in the cork or chemical compounds inadvertently created during the cork-making process can pass into the wine and spoil its aroma and flavor. Nobody knows why this happens; if they did, "corked" wines would be a non-issue.
(Enter stage right)
I Prefer A Pretty Cork
Corkless wine.
Corks Are Pretty
There is a renowned restaurant in the town that I live that sliced its corks longways and hot-glued them to the ceilings. They have an AWESOME ceiling in their bar area and it took two years of corks to accomplish this amazing spectacle.
Sorry, I don't have a picture.
Corks are pretty and decorative.
Can you imagine the ambiance let down when a waiter appears with a $250.00 bottle of their best reserve only to unscrew the cap?
It just ruins the moment.
The main obstacle to the screw cap is the psychological barrier.
Screw tops keep the air out better than any cork, but they are forced to sit by the sidelines until the public is ready to accept them.
In the meantime, collect your corks, they may be a vintage Ebay item in the future.
