Rant for Those in the Italian Wine Trade

Claude Kolm

Claude Kolm
Why to the Italians (mostly) insist on using bottle necks of lesser diameter than everyone else? As a result, if you break the cork or have a wine with a synthetic cork and you want to replace it, a glass stopper will not do, nor will most other corks. The EU overregulates everything else, why do they let the Italians get away with this?
 
I've seen screwcaps on a white from Puglia, and glass stoppers are used on some Brezza items from Piemonte, and also by de Bartoli in Sicilia, but in general, it's corks.
 
I haven't seen any screwcaps on Sella or on Villa Dora, both of which I pour and both of which Oliver brings in for his side of the country. Perhaps with the next vintage.
 
He's asking for next year, not for the wines he's currently importing:

I have been asking my producers to bottle the wine I buy from them under screwcap for the last three days (at Vinitaly). Some of them are going to oblige, if not this year then next. I can't wait, I am sick of dealing with cork problems.
posted by Oliver McCrum 4-4-2009 5:00pm
 
I asked everyone at the fair, and the reaction was certainly less incredulous than it was a few years ago. I may even be able to add a few capped wines before the end of the year.

I took my producer of Falanghina from the Campi Flegrei, who just graduated from enology school and is completely open-minded, to talk to my producer who is already using screwcaps ( who is from the Alto Adige; the two ends of the peninsula, in other words) at Vinitaly so they could compare notes. One of the problems is getting the bottles, as there's so little demand in Italy; the other is that most of the smaller producers in Italy own their own bottling lines, so they have to buy the special head for their line. I also mention the question of reduction, just so they'll look into it.

I love the fact that when I open my capped dry Muscat every bottle tastes the same; and how strange it is that that should be remarkable.
 
Oliver -- Do you know what the answer is to the problem I reported at the start of the thread about narrower necks for Italian wines?
 
Some wines from Southern france have narrower necks, too. Chateau Simone comes to mind but there's a couple others as well.
 
Claude,

Different bottles have different neck diameters, and it may be that France and Italy have standardised on different basic bottle types. I'll have a word with them about it when I become Boss.

If you drank mostly Italian wine you wouldn't have a problem, of course.
 
originally posted by Oliver McCrum:
Claude,

Different bottles have different neck diameters, and it may be that France and Italy have standardised on different basic bottle types. I'll have a word with them about it when I become Boss.

If you drank mostly Italian wine you wouldn't have a problem, of course.
I've found French, German, U.S. all interchangeable. I haven't run into any of the Southern French exceptions that Steve cites -- probably Chadderdon told Ch. Simone to do it just to be ornery. ;)
 
OK, I just opened an Apremont (Bernard, imported by the estimable Charles Neal) and a Barbera d'Asti (Pavia 'Molis') and the two corks are completely inter-operable. Perhaps it's because the Savoie used to be owned by Piedmont?
 
True, there's better compatibility with Piemontese wines, although far from full.

Re ESJ, Steve can correct me, but I recall the last Syrah I opened as having been under cork. Are they under screwcap, too, now?
 
originally posted by Oliver McCrum:
OK, I just opened an Apremont (Bernard, imported by the estimable Charles Neal) and a Barbera d'Asti (Pavia 'Molis') and the two corks are completely inter-operable. Perhaps it's because the Savoie used to be owned by Piedmont?
Was that when the Duke of Savoy moved his capitol from Chambry to Torino? How was the Apremont?
 
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