"The solution" to the solution of cork defects

The discussion on screw caps on wine has hardly passed anyone, even just remotely interested in wine. The screwed cap for wine were invented in 1959 in France but it took some considerable time before it really made it's way on to the market. Australia and New Zealand have been leading the development towards screw caps and by 2004 around 70 percent of the New Zealand wines were sealed with a screw cap, also known under the trademark Stelvin.

The one and only reason for inventing the screw cap was to get to the bottom with the problem of cork tainted wines. Cork defects are good for no parties involved in wine trade and changing for the aluminium/plastic hat should do everyone nothing but good.

Nevertheless the screw cap has met some resistance. Recently I went to the hairdresser here in Vienna and we started to talk about wine. I found out that she was fairly well oriented with the vast world of wines, at least the Austrian world... Anyhow it didn't take long until she started to talk about the "horrible development towards screw caps". She said I can live with that there are screw caps on cheap whites but for a wine that costs 4 Euro or more and definitely reds you want to have a "plopp". Without "plopp" all the fun was gone! That was her definite opinion and I started to wonder whether she at all considered the content of the bottle in her wine reviews or if it was only the plopping sound. I didn't pay much attention the the fact that she put the quality mark for one around 4 Euro since I've realized that an extremely small part of the wines bought here are actually priced over 4 Euro.

Now my hairdresser and all other "plopp" fanatics have a solution the the problem with non-plopping screw caps: The wine-disc. The wine disc might not give you a "plopp" from a non-plopping seal but it states on the web-page: "With this bottle opener we are aspiring to counteract the cultural loss represented by the screw top". It is simply wooden device with a metal coated whole in the middle. You press the screw cap into the hole and twist the wine-disc until you've opened the bottle.

To read more visit The winedisc homepage.

//

Lucas Spinnars

Links:

A short note on a screw cap wine from Villa Maria (Swedish)

The Wine Economist Writes about Corks and Screw Caps (2008 July 26)

Vievinum

Yesterday I visited the Vieviunum wine fair in Vienna. Hosted in the beautiful and pompous Hofburg in central Vienna the cut-glass chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and with the powerful ceiling paintings it was definitely one of the better scenes for a wine fair. It was not difficult to feel the tide of history flowing through the body when walking through the numerous rooms and tasting wines from the over 500 exhibitors represented. There was though probably one major difference between now and when the Habsburg family resided there - the wines. The upswing of Austrian wine in the last two decades was most definitely obvious in all of the halls.



The fair is without doubt mainly for Austrian wines even though central/south eastern Europe was decently represented as well. Slovenia had an entire room for it's producers as well as Südtirol in Italy and Hungary. Also Abruzzo in Italy had an own room obviously making unionised effort to push the wines from the region in Austria. Apart from that there was Serbian wines along with a few French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and South American wine of rather commercial than connoisseur interest.

Nevertheless, Austrian wines was the reason of the fair and they had truly collected the most of the producers in the country and the amount of wines available could almost seem never-ending. The Bernhard Ott Rosenberg 2008 is an old favourite that was as usual absolutely splendid. Showing typical Grüner Veltliner characteristics in a semi-dry wine with powerful attitude it strikes me as nectar of life. It will be available in Sweden from september 2010.

The biodynamic producer Weingut Tauss (certifeid with Demeter) impressed me with atypical Sauvignon Blancs from Styria (Südsteiermark) with hints of tropical fruit and mineral. At the price of only 14,40 € per bottle (or 31 € for a magnum bottle) their vineyard Sauvignon Blanc 2007 from Hohenegg has to be considered a bargain. I will though not neglect their generic Sauvignon Blanc from 2008 showing seriousness and an impressing palate of peaches and mango.


Red wines from Austria has so far not really caught my attention and after Vievinum not so much has changed. Anyhow, with some guidance one may occasionally find right. Weinberghof Fritsch Pinot Noir "P" 2007 shows a complex structure and a body rarely found in Austria.

All in all it was a really nice fair! For a an interested wine-nerd it was difficult to take notes due to lack of free space but one had to be creative and use corners that were available.

So long
Lucas Spinnars

Links:

Vievinum
Weingut Bernhard Ott
Weingut Tauss
Weinberghof Fritsch

If you are interrested in Austrian wine you can read more on my earlier posts here (both in Swedish).

Grüner veltliner och skotsk passion eller Trendspotting om inhemska druvsorter