Wine History -- When the cork met the bottle

The role of the Church in the production and marketing of wine declined with the Reformation, particularly in northern Europe, but this did not convulse the wine world half as much as the discovery of the usefulness of corks about a century later.  For the first time since the Roman empire, wine could now be stored and aged in bottles.  Throughout the Middle Ages wine had been kept in casks which had presented a dual handicap: first, too long kept in wood could rob a wine of all its fruit;  second, once the cask was opened the wine inevitably deteriorated unless drunk within a few days.  The bottle, with its smaller capacity, solved the former problem by providing a neutral, non-porous material which allowed wine to age in a different subtler way and removed the latter problem by providing sealed containers of a manageable size for a single session’s drinking.

However, the cork and bottle revolution was not an instant success;  bottles were then so bulbous they would only stand upright which meant the corks eventually dried out and as a consequence let in air.  But, by the mid 18th century, longer, flat-sided bottles were designed which would lie down, their corks kept moist by contact with the wine.  As a result wine making now took on a new dimension.  It became worthwhile for a winemaker to try and excel, wines from particular plots of land could be compared for their qualities, and the most exciting could be classified and separated from the more mundane plot wines.  As a result today’s great names of Bordeaux, Burgundy and the Rhine first began to be noticed.

In the early 19th century, Europe seemed one massive vineyard.  In Italy 80% of people were earning their living from wine and in France there were vast plantings rolling southwards from Paris.  Also the vine had moved abroad thanks to explorers, colonists and missionaries.  It went to Latin America with the Spaniards, South Africa with French Huguenots, and to Australia with the British.  Could anything stop this tide of wine expansion?

Well, yes and it came in the form of an aphid called phylloxera, that fed on and destroyed vine roots.  It came from America in the 1860’s, and by the early 20th century, had destroyed all Europe’s vineyards and most of the rest of the world’s as well.  The solution was to graft the vulnerable European vine, vitis vinifera, onto the phylloxera-resistant American rootstock, vitis riparia, naturally a very expensive effort.  The most immediate effect in Europe was that only the best sites were replanted and the total area under vines shrank drastically as a result.  Elsewhere the havoc wrought was comparable and vineyard acreage is only now expanding to old original sites destroyed over a century ago.

The 20th century brought further change as science and technology revolutionised viticulture and wine making.  But despite the chemical formulae and computerised wineries, the grape retains its magic and allure that attracts wine enthusiasts from all over the world.

Corks or screw caps -- The closing argument

It is now very rare to find the total use of natural cork to stop wine bottles with the Rioja region of Spain being the most obvious exception.  Increasingly, for a wide variety of reasons, the use of plastic stoppers and screw caps is becoming widespread.  Why is this so, and what are the pros and cons of each method, and what should we be looking for when considering the alternatives?  This really is a topic of hot debate in the world of wine at the moment.  By tasting wines using the different methods of stopping, you can join this debate fully with your own opinions, thereby reinforcing the subjectivity of wine appreciation.

Most consumers still prefer natural cork and think of it as the most classy and professional way to package and stop wine.  They would argue that the popping of a cork is part of the romance of wine appreciation, but it is true that the incidence of cork taint is on the increase.  This occurs when a bad cork infects the wine with a mouldy, musty smell and flavour.  Indeed it is believed that somewhere approaching one in twenty bottle are so affected, and whilst the worse ones are relatively easy to spot, those affected slightly do not become apparent until opened and nearly drunk.  Never suffer a corked wine, always send it back or return it to the vendor.  Cork producers are working hard to improve the consistency in quality with constantly improving results.  It is important to remember that wines bottled using natural cork do generally age well, because the cork allows for a tiny exchange of air within the bottle, resulting in a gradual, small amount of oxidation.

Plastic stoppers prevent this cork taint and indeed some are made to look like natural cork, but they can be difficult to get off the corkscrew and even harder to get back into the unfinished bottle.  Probably the most important issue with plastic stoppers is that we do not know how the wine reacts to the plastic.  It is this doubt that has prompted producers to move over to screw caps, which were traditionally used to stop cheaper wines.  Now more and more premium wine is stopped this way with the Australians and New World producers leading the way, although some progressive Europeans are joining the trend.

Screw caps eliminate cork taint, allow effective resealing and were first used to seal those wines considered to be susceptible to cork taint, such as Riesling or Sauvignon Blanc.  Whilst red wines can benefit from cork sealing in terms of taste, screw caps are much easier to use.  As for the future screw caps seem to be in the ascendancy at the moment, but as cork producers begin to tackle the problem of taint effectively there might be a revival in its uptake.