For almost fifteen years New Zealanders have become used to opening wine bottles in the absence of a cork screw. Indeed, many of you will likely have to delve to the back of the “rarely used” kitchen cupboard or drawer to locate a device that has become defunct in many households!
In 2001, a New Zealand Screwcap Wine Seal Initiative sub-committee of Marlborough Winemakers was set up to evaluate screwcap closures as an alternative to traditional corks, and since then screwcap closures have pretty much been adopted nationwide.
However, today some 80 percent of the world’s 20 billion bottles of wine produced each year are still sealed with cork; so the cork versus screwcap debate still goes on.
To that end, we wanted to give you a quick summary of why we think the Stelvin Lux Screwcap closures that we use on bottles of Fairbourne hand-picked Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc are awesome….
- They’re easy to open!
- You won’t open a bottle that has “cork” taint; caused by contamination with TCA (the chemical compound 2,4,6-trichloroanisole) that’s present in cork.
- Your wine will reach you in premium condition.
- Your wine will age consistently and reliably, showing the wine’s development exactly as Sarah intended.
If you’re still not convinced, take a read of this article from Washington State University, where Thomas Henick-Kling (Director of Washington State University’s Viticulture and Enology program), extols the virtues of caps versus corks.
