¡Noise!

The joy of closure

I’d heard a bit about this wine before it was released: a $15 Albarino in screwcap from Vintage Cellars. It will sell by the truckload if it’s any good, I thought. Then Larry posted a comment after tasting a bottle, and it sounds quite good indeed. So I made a rare trip to my local Vintage Cellars store and picked one up, banged in the fridge for an hour or so and poured myself a glass. Yuk, completely oxidised. Buggar. The ‘cap looked OK too, no dents or anything. But its one of those Stelvin Lux plastic jobs, I’m sure if they do dent. I’ll take it back and get a new one.

However, you will be seeing a lot more wine from Spain under screwcap in the next couple of years. It would seem that regardless of any local laws or D.O. regulations, producers are installing screwcap equipment in their bottling lines and are ready, willing and able to export their wine with a screwcap keeping the wine in the bottle rather than a cork. Mainly whites at first, but the reds will come….