How the cap turns...

G

Graeme Gee

Graeme Gee
Back in 2000, when Clare Valley riesling makers were tiring of the shithouse performance of natural cork ruining so many of their wines, they vowed to defy retail history and what their marketers were telling them, and so 17 of them clubbed together to launch the 2000 vintage rieslings under screwcap (either partly or in whole).
There were two reasons for acting as a group, one strategic, and one practical. Strategically, they were demonstrating unity of approach, confidence in the seal, and making a statement about their wines and their ability to age.
Practically, the only place they could get the bottles was France. They needed to order minimum 250,000 bottles to guarantee manufacture/shipment, and no maker could justify that by themselves. No Australian glassmaker made a riesling bottle with a screwcap flange. It did mean that everyone's 2000 riesling came in the same brown bottle, but that's why you pay the big bucks to the label designers!

Fast forward 8 years. Rockford, the arch-reactionary Barossa winery, whose winery equipment was mostly salvaged from what other wineries threw out, and who seem to operate barely one generation ahead of horse-drawn equipment, are importing their riesling bottle.
Why?
Well, it's cork-sealed. And these days, Australian glass makers make riesling bottles ONLY with a screwcap top. You can't buy a cork-sealed riesling bottle from a local glass maker.

Who'd have foreseen that eight years ago?
cheers,
Graeme
 
originally posted by Susannah:
RockfordI always liked their Alicante Bouschet ros.
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That's a bottle that I brought back with me from my last trip to Tanunda but nobody in my acquaintance wants to drink it. I like the color a lot, although the last vintage was a little on the sweet side for my tastes
(although maybe this vintage just lacks acidity). This was bottled under Stelvin (IIRC), so why would Rocky do this wine in screwcap but not the Riesling? I've had more corked and oxidized rieslings than any other Rockford wines.

-Eden (the worst was a corked Black Shiraz - Rockford should switch to crown caps for the fizzy stuff)
 
originally posted by Susannah:
RockfordI always liked their Alicante Bouschet ros.
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Funnily enough, I think that IS in screwcap nowadays. Go figure!

Just extrapolating, that means pretty well nearly every riesling & gewurz made in OZ is under a screwcap these days. And pinot gris/grigio as well, come to that, although they might use a wider range of bottle shapes.

For all the huffing and puffing about screwcaps, and aging, and redution, and tin, and saranax, and all the rest, no-one could suggests that screwcaps do any harm to Australian rieslings - even aromatics in general - over the long term, which takes Rockford's stance beyond traditional, or even stubborn, and well into the realm of peverse...

cheers,
Graeme
 
originally posted by Graeme Gee:

For all the huffing and puffing about screwcaps, and aging, and redution, and tin, and saranax, and all the rest, no-one could suggests that screwcaps do any harm to Australian rieslings - even aromatics in general - over the long term, which takes Rockford's stance beyond traditional, or even stubborn, and well into the realm of peverse...
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I've had several different Australian Rieslings bottled in screwcaps that have had 10-15 years of age on them that were much fresher than the same wine finished with cork. But O'Callaghan is a traditionalist and a wine icon and if this is how he likes to roll, who am I to tell him that he shouldn't put a cork in it? In the end, it's not surprising that he's sticking with the tried (or is that "tired"?) and true.

In honor of discussion topic I opened a bottle of the 2007 Francis Ford Coppola Encyclopedia Riesling. The alcohol level is 11.5% and has enough riesling character to plausibly lay claim to it being a "varietal riesling". It is apparently made from the well known "Rhein-Mosel" region of Germany (as fruit? must? wine?). As a beverage, its pretty flat and lifeless and is just a little too sweet for its own good, but as a marketing venture it's a home run. As they say in the wine biz: "Chicks dig it!" If they were to improve the quality a bit they might make some inroads in convincing people that riesling isn't always too sweet.

Here's a photo of the bottle and its orange screwcap:
DSCN0471.jpg
My cat wasn't overly impressed with either the wine or the packaging, but he's kind of picky.

-Eden (besides, it'll never fit into the wine racks that came in the Vinotemp)
 
originally posted by David M. Bueker:
Viva la revolution! Screwcap the world!
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Hell yeah! Last week, I opened an '87 Clape Cornas only to get a big whack of TCA in the nose; so, back down to the cellar for a backup bottle and up with an '89 Chapoutier La Sizeranne -- kinda New Worldish, but not spoofy, then the hint of TCA becomes apparent there, too. Fuck tree bark.

Mark Lipton
 
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