How Do Screwcap Affect Riesling Aging Curves

I still have a pending order from 2005. Good thing I'm patient and I wasn't looking to drink the wine right away!
 
just as long as my 2005s aren't under screwcap, I won't be concerned. I'm a big believer in the ceremony of properly presenting irony.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
originally posted by Oliver McCrum:

One weird thing about this defect is that so few consumers are aware of it that most of the corked wine gets drunk, and much of the wine I get returned is not in fact corked...
So Oliver, it seems certain that lots of corked wine is unwittingly consumed, but why does wine that isn't corked get back to you? If a restaurant gets a good bottle returned, don't they sell it btg at the bar or some such?

Sorry to be so late responding, I've been away with no internet access.

They bloody well should sell it at the bar or some such, but the reality is that the customer (trying to impress his girlfriend, doubtless) says the wine is corked, and the waiter writes 'corked' on the label without tasting it, and weeks later they ask me for a credit. You can still tell whether it's corked or not, of course, but it's not salelable.

The sad truth is that most waiters (or retail clerks) don't have any idea what corked means, let alone what it tastes like, so they let the consumer decide, and they know even less. The big distributors have no problem taking wine back whether or not there is anything wrong with it as they kick it straight to their suppliers.
 
originally posted by Oliver McCrum:

The big distributors have no problem taking wine back whether or not there is anything wrong with it as they kick it straight to their suppliers.

Untrue. The big distributors are the most difficult, in point of fact.
 
originally posted by Levi Dalton:
originally posted by Oliver McCrum:

The big distributors have no problem taking wine back whether or not there is anything wrong with it as they kick it straight to their suppliers.

Untrue. The big distributors are the most difficult, in point of fact.

True, actually; but you may be right in your state. Certainly its true here; the big companies make no effort to ascertain whether a returned bottle is defective or not, which makes anyone who does attempt to do so look like a piker. Your state law may differ, which might affect the behavior of the behemoths in your state; of course many of these rules were passed to benefit them.
 
It isn't a matter of their testing bottles. That's not really an issue here, because most of the corked wines here were turned back by a sommelier (me) not a customer. I am talking about their refusal to do anything about corked bottles after repeated requests, for say, 8 months or so.
 
originally posted by Levi Dalton:
It isn't a matter of their testing bottles. That's not really an issue here, because most of the corked wines here were turned back by a sommelier (me) not a customer. I am talking about their refusal to do anything about corked bottles after repeated requests, for say, 8 months or so.

Levi,

You're talking about your situation, which is quite different from mine. Reps for the big companies here don't get any static for picking up returns, and the company doesn't pay for it, so they do it readily.
 
originally posted by Levi Dalton:
It isn't a matter of their testing bottles. That's not really an issue here, because most of the corked wines here were turned back by a sommelier (me) not a customer. I am talking about their refusal to do anything about corked bottles after repeated requests, for say, 8 months or so.
Oh, oh, can I guess which company?
 
originally posted by Oliver McCrum:
originally posted by Levi Dalton:
It isn't a matter of their testing bottles. That's not really an issue here, because most of the corked wines here were turned back by a sommelier (me) not a customer. I am talking about their refusal to do anything about corked bottles after repeated requests, for say, 8 months or so.

Levi,

You're talking about your situation, which is quite different from mine. Reps for the big companies here don't get any static for picking up returns, and the company doesn't pay for it, so they do it readily.

That has been my general experience in the wine business for the last 20 years. The 5% is a much bigger burden on smaller companies who don't have economies of scale.
 
If anyone had to take back anything like the true incidence of cork you can bet that the situation would have changed a long time ago. Another odd aspect of this business.
 
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