Tag Archives: screwcaps

Winebits 790: Winespeak, screwcaps, wine history

Students study an equation on a chalk board
“You think this is bad? Did you see the tasting notes for that new 98-point wine?”

This week’s wine news: Winespeak isn’t inclusive (shocking, right?), plus another call for screwcaps and wine may be older than we think

• Not inclusive? Nat Sellers, writing in Wine-Searcher, argues that winespeak isn’t inclusive for a new generation of wine drinkers. Which is all well and good, but overlooks the biggest problem with winespeak. It has never been inclusive, catering mostly to wine geeks and confusing almost anyone else who came into contact with it. Even the simple stuff was baffling: I never did a tasting, wine class or seminar when someone didn’t ask, “If the wine tastes like grapefruit, does that mean there is grapefruit juice in it?” And why was winespeak confusing? Because the wine business wanted it that way – it’s easier to sell product to people who are confused, yes?

• Bring on the screwcaps: The Robb Report, whose audience would never be mistaken for mine, doesn’t mince words: “Why It’s Time for Fine Wine to Ditch the Cork and Embrace Screw Caps.” Excuse the WC if he does a double take; the wines in the piece cost three figures, and bear no resemblance to my beloved Gascon whites and $10 roses. That a magazine catering to the uber-wealthy is advocating for screwcaps like I do is another sign that it’s time for the cork to go.

• New theory: It has been accepted historical fact that grape cultivation and winemaking started in what is modern day Georgia in Eurasia  some 6,000 to 8,000 years ago. Now, new research has found that wine may be even older than that, originating in the Near East as well as the Caucasus about 3,000 years before then. In fact, says the study, published in Science, the origin of wine in Western Europe is associated with cross-fertilization between native wild grapes and domesticated grapes originating from the Near East that were initially used as food sources. If this is true, and the study makes a good case, will change the way archeologists look at how wine influenced the growth of civilization.

Photo: “Students study an equation on a chalk board” by simpleinsomnia is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Winebits 716: Eating at home, Italian imports, “waxsplaining”

eating at home
The only thing this woman didn’t buy at the supermarket for dinner was a bottle of wine.

This week’s wine news: Eating at home — and what the means for wine — is still driving supermarket sales. Plus, Italian wine imports surge and wax-sealed wine

• We’re still eating at home: Kroger’s CEO told business analysts that the supermarket chain is still seeing its sales driven by shoppers buying to eat home, something that appears to be with us even as more restaurants remain open. Rodney McMullen said that “food-at-home trends remain sticky,” and that Kroger’s sales were more or less the same as they were in the same period a year ago, near the height of the pandemic. That’s an impressive performance, and is one more indication that we’re not eating out the way we were two years ago. We’ve discussed the impact of his many times on the blog; that it bodes well for retail wine sales but not for restaurants. In this, the wine business may need to re-examine how it sells wine, as eating at home becomes less of a trend and more of a way of life.

• Bring on the Italian wine: Those of us who are flummoxed by the way wine continues to defy the law of supply and demand can take heart: Italian wine sales to to the U.S. rose 12 percent in value in 2020, compared to 2015-18. In other words, shoppers — faced with higher prices on French and Spanish wine thanks to the Trump wine tariff — bought less expensive Italian wine, which wasn’t hit by the tariff. Sparkling wine sales — mostly Prosecco — rose by 75 percent in value over the same periods.

• “Let’s make enjoying wine harder!” So writes Amber LeBeau, writing on the SpitBucket website after battling a wax-sealed wine bottle and barely getting it open. “Why are we putting extra tolls or ‘effort taxes’ on our product that we’re expecting consumers to happily pay? And then come back for more?” LeBeau asks. Which, of course, is something the Wine Curmudgeon has been wondering about for years. The points in the piece are all well made, and explains is losing popularity to alcohol with tabs. And screwcaps.

Photo: Jason Briscoe on Unsplash 

scratchand sniff

Who needs a corkscrew? Pump that wine cork out!

Wouldn’t a screwcap be easier to use than paying for a gizmo to pump the wine cork out of the bottle?

Regular visitors know the Wine Curmudgeon’s long-running and Quixotic quest to convince the wine business that screwcaps can help save wine from itself. If we eliminate the wine cork, we make it easier to open the bottle. So won’t more people drink wine?

Which, of course, is advice that has been consistently ignored. And, as I always note, advice that aggravates blog visitors to such an extent that several always cancel their email when I write about this.

Nevertheless, I keep going. The wine cork is problem enough, but what may be worse is the other foolishness it has engendered. See the video for something called the Airly, which pumps the cork out of the bottle: “Gone are the days of broken corks, broken cork screws, floating cork bits in your wine, and for a lot of us…the pain of opening a bottle of wine!”

Pain, indeed.

To me, the pain comes when someone invents yet another gadget of limited value when the solution to the cork problem is simple: screwcaps. Twist and open. Twist and open. Twist and open. And no tools or expense required – just like craft beer and spirits.

The Airly, not surprisingly, apparently didn’t last much past the year-old video. I couldn’t find it for sale. But – and also not surprisingly – Amazon sells at least four similar products. Two of them have one-star ratings of about 20 percent; given’s Amazon’s reputation for inflated scoring, that should speak to how well the things work.

So cancel if you feel you must, but know that as long as wine corks and gizmos like the Airly exist, I’ll keep tilting at the windmill. Would you expect any less?

Video courtesy of GearDate via YouTube using a Creative Commons license

More about wine corks and screwcaps:
• Corks: The most dangerous wine closure in the world
• It’s not the quality of the wine – it’s the sound of the cork popping
• Chehalem, pinot noir, and screwcaps

New and easier to use motor oil containers, but same old wine bottles

wine bottles
Something’s wrong here — not a cork or punt in sight.

Even the conservative and old-fashioned motor oil business realizes packaging matters. So why doesn’t the wine business?

Does this quote sound familiar?

“We are far more conservative in the marketing of our products. We are almost apologetic. While other industries focus on creating products that are distinctly different and stand out from the crowd, we do the exact opposite.”

No, it’s not the wine business, which considers screwcaps the spawn of the devil and still thinks chateau wine labels are a big deal. It’s the motor oil business, as described by a long-time senior official at Valvoline.

So when Valvoline comes out with a truly innovative product – a five-quart, easy-open, easy pour, ergonomic motor oil bottle, what does that say about the wine business and its outdated and ridiculously stubborn reliance on the 750-ml bottle and its cork closure?

Not much. Is it any wonder I worry about the future of the wine business?

The genesis for this post came after talking to a friend about wine packaging. He described a trade show seminar where a packaging consultant told the audience that the dizzying array of wine bottles – their shapes, sizes, and closures – were expensive, inefficient, and hurt sales and profits. He couldn’t help them until they decided to get serious about wine packaging.

And then I saw a TV ad for the new Valvoline bottle, and I literally shook my head in despair. Valvoline wanted a new container that would make changing oil easier and less messy, but that fit on store shelves the way the current container does. In other words, it saw a problem and wanted to fix it to sell more product.

By contrast, how many times has anyone in the wine business said opening a wine bottle should be easier? Hardly ever. And how many times has anyone said the wine business should spend money to solve that problem? Even less than hardly ever.

The solution to this exists, by the way. There is a wine equivalent of the new Valvoline bottle – plastic, or PET, bottles. They have a smaller carbon footprint and weigh up to eight times less than glass, are almost unbreakable, use screwcaps, and fit on a shelf like a glass bottle. There was a push to use PET for wine about a decade ago, and you’ll see PET beer bottles, but the wine initiative never got anywhere. Is anyone surprised?

More about wine packaging:
• It’s not the quality of the wine — it’s the sound of the cork popping
• Will canned wine solve all of the wine business’ problems?
• Four wine myths that confuse consumers

Winebits 541: Iced tea wine, wine delivery apps, and a new cork wine closure

iced tea wine
Just like a screwcap, but made of cork.

This week’s wine news: First coffee wine, so why not iced tea wine? Plus, developments among wine delivery apps and a cork closure that doesn’t need a corkscrew

• Yes, it’s sweet: If there’s coffee wine, why not iced tea wine? Natchez Hills Winery, near Nashville, Tenn., has released a wine made with 100 percent sweet tea, fermented just like grapes are to make wine. And, since canned wine is trendy, says the winery’s news release, it comes in a can. What have we wrought with Drin

k Local? I haven’t tasted this, and not sure I want to (I drink unsweetened tea), but any Southerners in the audience who are brave enough are welcome to take notes and send them in. We’ll get them on the blog.

• Wine at your door: Liza Zimmerman, writing for Forbes, updates the overcrowded world of wine delivery apps like Drizly and Minibar: They remain mostly local, retailers are increasingly wary of letting someone else handle their delivery, and opportunities abound. Sort of, anyway, given Amazon’s withdrawal from the market and the increasing presence of grocery store delivery services like Instacart.

• Just like a screwcap: Hate corks, but miss the cork popping when you open a bottle of wine? Then consider wine using the Helix closure – it has threads so it can be unscrewed, but is made of cork . The catch? It’s not on many wines yet. The most interesting bit? That Anorim, the world’s leading cork producer, is the company that developed the Helix. I guess if you can’t beat screwcaps, you might as well copy them.

Says the Internet: Corks are the greatest wine closure ever; why use anything else?

corks
After I get the car started, I’m buying wine with a cork. Because of the romance.

Because corks are 19th century technology, and I don’t use a hand crank to start my car, do I?

The Wine Curmudgeon stands corrected. How could I have ever been so wrong about corks, and especially given how how much the cyber-ether loves corks these days?

How could I not see that corks are “the bodyguard of wine, more than a closure?” Or that corks are essential “when it comes to opening a treasured bottle… . the time-honored custom of pulling that cork and savoring the perfume as it escapes from the bottle.”

And some wine drinkers actually wonder why people make fun of us.

It’s the 21st century; corks are 19th century technology. That they’re still used on 70 percent of all wine speaks to how out of touch the wine business is with the 21st century. After all, do we still use a hand crank to start a car? It’s certainly more romantic than a key – or even, heaven forbid, a push button.

Much of the current kissy face for corks is apparently the result of another PR offensive from the cork business (none of which, for some reason, ever seems to include me). We get these periodically, to remind us that we should appreciate a closure that fails as much as five percent of the time and that requires a special tool. Because, of course, that’s part of the romance.

And some wine drinkers actually wonder why people make fun of us.

This is usually the part of my cork posts when the cork aficionados in the audience get red in the face, mutter under their breath, and cancel their subscription to the blog. How dare he criticize corks? Doesn’t he understand screwcaps may be OK for the junk he drinks, but that real wine requires a cork?

We’ll ignore the real wine crack. I’m used to it after all these years. But the biggest fallacy about corks is that they’re the only closure that ages wine properly. Because, as this study shows, screwcaps can age wine, too. They just do it differently.

Which brings us to the point that every cork marketing push overlooks. And why not, since it shows how irrelevant corks are in the 21st century? Almost all of the wine the world drinks – most estimates are more than 90 percent – isn’t made to age. Most wine is made to drink for dinner that night. So the closure, as long as it keeps the wine fresh and from spilling out of the bottle, doesn’t matter at all. But do we use the easiest, most convenient closure? Of course not. We’d lose the romance.

And some wine drinkers actually wonder why people make fun of us.

scratchand sniff

Bic lighters, wine corks, and screwcaps

How quaint: Let’s use a lighter to push open a wine cork

Those of you holding out, who still think wine must have a cork closure, should watch the entire 1:46 of this video to be reminded that wine corks are 19th century technology.

Yes, it’s a neat party trick. But that’s what people used to say about wearing a lampshade, and we don’t do that anymore, do we? And, sadly, I have encountered more than one bottle over the years where the cork was pushed up like that and no one took a lighter to it. That’s called sitting in a hot warehouse.

A wine closure, like any other food seal, should be easy to use and safe for both the product and the consumer. None of which, as the brave fellow here demonstrates, applies to corks. Only wine would make the product so complicated that it discourages people from buying it – and let’s not forget that the gadget used to open the wine can cost more than the wine itself.

In other words, when’s the last time you needed a corkscrew to open a bottle of ketchup?

Video courtesy of Hacker 007 via Youtube, using a Creative Commons license