Winebits 497: Corks, Robert Parker, outer space wine
by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On
This week’s wine news: The cork industry says wine drinkers prefer corks, plus the Michelin Guide gets into the Winestream Media and outer space wine
• Who would have thought it? A new study says U.S. wine drinkers prefer corks, which would be amazing news save for one thing – the cork industry paid for the study. So when the report says that 97 percent of us think cork is an indicator of wine quality, it’s so much hooey. Because what would you expect a survey paid for by the cork industry to reveal? That 97 percent of us think screwcaps are a better closure? The cork business is notorious for this kind of thing, and I have written about it before. One day, perhaps, cork producers will figure out we’re not so easily fooled. Until then, I will keep reminding them of that point.
• A one-star winery? The Michelin Guide, perhaps the best-known restaurant rating service in the world, has bought 40 percent of Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate magazine. This is another indication of the continuing premiumization of all parts of the wine business, since Michelin focuses on high end restaurants and sees the Advocate as a chance to enrich the restaurant guide part of its business.” This is the second time the Advocate has been sold; Asian investors bought most of the company from Parker a couple of years ago.
• Outer space wine: Can wine be made in outer space? That’s the question Gizmodo website put to the woman at NASA who runs the space agency’s crop program. The answer? Maybe, maybe not, given the challenges involved in growing and then fermenting the grapes. And even then it wouldn’t matter much: Given the size of the International Space Station, there’s enough room for just one bottle’s worth of grapes.
OK, so you don’t accept the finding that 97 percent of consumers prefer cork closures. So what would you accept? And what would you base it on? Your comment calling “hooey” on the survey is snarky and not constructive.
I don’t know. Let’s do an impartial survey that isn’t paid for by cork (or screwcaps) and find out.
But since this is wine, that will never happen.