Wine

[mrkint]

Wine snobs - ahoy!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22909428" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[William the White]

I sense a major diversion hovering...

i know all the arguments about the efficiency of the screw top - and I buy screw topped wines...

but it still feels wrong to me...

just does. prejudice. Stuck in mud. But i prefer the cork.

Anyway, just taken the cork out of a bottle of red Rioja. To go with the pasta puttanesca.

The year of Hispanic culture going pretty well.

[Montreal Wanderer]

I gather that cork, which comes almost exclusively from the Iberian peninsula maybe running out anyway. We with have to turn to alternatives. I have no problem with screw tops but I sometimes have problems with corks.

[bobo the clown]

At a meal a year or so ago a woman on a table by me sent a screw top bottle back as it was 'corked'.

The restaunter took it on the chin, brought another & that was " ... perfect". .... He told me later that he'd billed her for it & she didn't seem to have noticed.

[Bruce Rioja]

I gather that cork, which comes almost exclusively from the Iberian peninsula maybe running out anyway. We with have to turn to alternatives. I have no problem with screw tops but I sometimes have problems with corks.

I have more of a problem with those waxy, plastic bung/imitation cork things which now, thankfully, appear to be being phased out.

[Montreal Wanderer]

I gather that cork, which comes almost exclusively from the Iberian peninsula maybe running out anyway. We with have to turn to alternatives. I have no problem with screw tops but I sometimes have problems with corks.

I have more of a problem with those waxy, plastic bung/imitation cork things which now, thankfully, appear to be being phased out.

Not keen on those either, Bruce. However the number of corks that crumble or break when you attempt to extract them seems to be on the increase.

[thebish]

i like corks - mainly just the satisfying noise they make when you pull them out...

also - good excuse to finish the bottle as you can't get the cork back in!

[Lost Leopard Spot]

I like corks because I like cork forests. We'd have diminished Portugese ecological niches if we uprooted the cork forests in favour of screw top trees. The Portugese wouldn't be happy, I wouldn't be happy, the birds that live in cork forests would be livid.

[Lord Kangana]

Wine snobs - ahoy!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22909428" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thats a bit like saying having a windscreen in your car is a luxury, you posh get.

Lets dispel some myths. The Parker stat that Monty quoted is baseless nonsense. Its someones opinion. I think at least 70% of what Robert Parker says is moronic.

Secondly, there is no substance on earth yet found that can mimic the properties that cork brings to the table. It allows a minute amount of gas exchange across it, yet is completely impervious to liquid. This is very important to wine.

Thirdly, its worked for hundreds of years, why change it when there is no satisfactory substitute? And, by the way, there isn't, just lots of people who have tried, and after a few years, when all the evidence is in, have failed? I've had as many bottles that are "corked" from alternative closures as from cork. yet I drink less bottles of wine with alternative closures. Go figure, as someone who speaks yankish would say.

[Lord Kangana]

At a meal a year or so ago a woman on a table by me sent a screw top bottle back as it was 'corked'.

The restaurateur in this scenario was the idiot, not the complainer. A wine being corked has nothing to do with cork, it is a chemical change in the wine. A screwcap wine can be corked.

[bobo the clown]

At a meal a year or so ago a woman on a table by me sent a screw top bottle back as it was 'corked'.

The restaurateur in this scenario was the idiot, not the complainer. A wine being corked has nothing to do with cork, it is a chemical change in the wine. A screwcap wine can be corked.

I bow to your vastly superior knowledge LK. I thought the chemical reaction was a function of the cork allowing air in and that then affecting the wine ?

I've only ever had one 'corked' bottle and it didn't need the traditional "would sir like to taste ?" moment to know.

[Lord Kangana]

If you've got a spare few minutes, theres an articl here...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cork_taint" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I remain highly sceptical about the whole issue, because for one I think to cut costs many low-grade cork maufacturers have cut corners, making cork is quite a long and laborious (expensive?) process.

Secondly, I want to know what vested interest any particular person has in recommending anything. The wine world is a minefield of agendas.

[thebish]

At a meal a year or so ago a woman on a table by me sent a screw top bottle back as it was 'corked'.

The restaurateur in this scenario was the idiot, not the complainer. A wine being corked has nothing to do with cork, it is a chemical change in the wine. A screwcap wine can be corked.

I bow to your vastly superior knowledge LK. I thought the chemical reaction was a function of the cork allowing air in and that then affecting the wine ?

I've only ever had one 'corked' bottle and it didn't need the traditional "would sir like to taste ?" moment to know.

i think there is a difference between a wine being "corked" and a wine being "oxidised"

"corked" wines have usually been exposed to TCA - Trichloroanisole - which is comes from a fungus sometimes found in cork. these wines will smell mouldy - old socky... I'm not sure if this is possible with screw-top wine.

oxidised wines have simply been exposed to too much air - they might taste sherry-like when they shouldn't - or vinegary if it has gone too far...

I suspect the complainant was possibly right that the wine tasted funny - but I doubt it was "corked" - it may have been oxidised - maybe the waiter served her some from a previously opened bottle?

[Lord Kangana]

Corked wine doesn't have to have a cork.

[thebish]

Corked wine doesn't have to have a cork.

i'll take your word for it! in the absence of a cork - where does the Trichloroanisole usually come from?

[Lord Kangana]

Every stage in the wine making and storage process. Including, but not exclusive to cork. But it isn't even necessarily cork's "fault". It can be bad manufacture, storage etc etc that can imprt it in to cork. And by extension, other things.

[Bruce Rioja]

I think at least 70% of what Robert Parker says is moronic.

Isn't he that Tiger on Life of Pi?

[William the White]

I think at least 70% of what Robert Parker says is moronic.

Isn't he that Tiger on Life of Pi?

Richard Parker?

[Montreal Wanderer]

Wine snobs - ahoy!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22909428" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thats a bit like saying having a windscreen in your car is a luxury, you posh get.

Lets dispel some myths. The Parker stat that Monty quoted is baseless nonsense. Its someones opinion. I think at least 70% of what Robert Parker says is moronic.

Secondly, there is no substance on earth yet found that can mimic the properties that cork brings to the table. It allows a minute amount of gas exchange across it, yet is completely impervious to liquid. This is very important to wine.

Thirdly, its worked for hundreds of years, why change it when there is no satisfactory substitute? And, by the way, there isn't, just lots of people who have tried, and after a few years, when all the evidence is in, have failed? I've had as many bottles that are "corked" from alternative closures as from cork. yet I drink less bottles of wine with alternative closures. Go figure, as someone who speaks yankish would say.

Eh? Moi? What stat did I quote?

[Lord Kangana]

Haha, I'm not sure, I thought it was you!

Its the Parker one, about 10% of wine being faulty. Its just bollox, can anyone here really say that 1 in every 10 bottles they buy tastes faulty? The 1% that is quoted after a more rigorous study seems to bear a greater resemblance to my (and many others) experience.

Which, if you think about it rationally, is a 99% success rate. Almost impossible to better. But then, if you had an agenda, you wouldn't be claiming the rival product you were replacing to be "almost perfect already", would you?