Screwcaps

I often get asked about screwcaps, particularly here in the US where most bottles are still stopped with corks. Screwcaps are slowly beginning to emerge for less expensive wines, but consumers still prefer corks, associating them with high quality as well enjoying that sound of a cork being pulled. Elsewhere in the New World, screwcaps are much more common: in New Zealand, around 70% of wines have a screwcap closure. I once met the actor Sam Neill, who owns the Two Paddocks winery in Central Otago, and asked him why he didn't use corks and he pulled a face of dramatic disgust, "You can never trust a cork."

The reason for his disgust was, of course, because corks have a tendency to become infected with TCA. As I wrote in a previous blog, TCA is a chemical compound that makes a wine smell and taste bad and comes from cleaning the cork with chlorine or unclean winemaking practices. This was an especially problematic issue in the 1990s, when possibly up to 10% of wines were infected with TCA. Things have got a lot better since then as the cork industry has worked hard to remedy the problem, but there's still a 2-5% chance of a wine being faulty, whereas with a screwcap that's nearly zero.

So why doesn't everyone use a screwcap?

The downside to screwcaps is that they arguably don't allow a wine to age as well as a cork does. A cork lets small amounts of oxygen to permeate into the bottle, allowing the wine to breathe, develop, and mature. A screwcap, again arguably, does not allow a wine to develop the same complexity as it is completely airtight. 

Many wineries are experimenting and coming to different conclusions. A few years ago, I visited the Andrew Will winery in Washington and the maverick, charismatic owner and winemaker Chris Camarda kindly poured me two versions of the 2008 Sorella, one of the great wines of the US. One bottle had been stopped with a cork (which is how the wine is sold) and the other closed with a screwcap. The differences were subtle, but the screwcap bottle was fruitier while the cork bottle felt more integrated and complex, with spicier and more oak flavours. That confirmed my impressions that a bottle stopped with a cork ages more gradually and complexly than with a screwcap. That was again confirmed by the recent decision of a leading Chablis producer, Laroche, to switch back to cork for their Grands Crus, having used screwcap since the mid-2000s but feeling that the wines were not ageing as gracefully as they would have wished.

it's complicated

However, as with everything in life, it's complicated. Last week my wife and I opened a 2006 bottle of Chardonnay from New Zealand producer Kumeu River (pronounced Q-mew River), based near Auckland where an increasing amont of quality Chardonnay is being made. Although they're a good producer (the owner and winemaker, Michael Brajkovich, is a Master of Wine), I wasn't expecting that much from a ten-year-old Chardonnay bottled with a screwcap. Quite the opposite: it was sensational. It was incredibly fresh - perhaps because of the screwcap - with rich, fruity green apple and citrus aromas, and a smokiness coming from oak. And - despite the screwcap - it had a slight nuttiness that I would normally associate with slow oxidation, something that with a cork may have been more pronounced. On the back of the label, Brajkovich stated that the wine would age for four to six years. Ten years later, it's still going strong, which shows how much we have to learn. One thing I can say, though: opening a screwcap is a lot easier and quicker than pulling a cork...

New WSET Level 3

It's been over three years since I took the WSET's Level 3. At the time, it was exactly what I was looking for: a broad, comprehensive, yet vigorous overview of the world of wine, how wine is made, and how to taste wine. Since then, I've gone on to take the WSET Diploma, taught both WSET Levels 2 and 3, and taken the WSET Educator course which puts me on track to becoming an accredited WSET Educator. Despite the many strengths of the Level 3 course, I've also discovered some of its weaknesses - its concentrated focus on France can be off-putting to many students, its structure can seem too formulaic, and, put bluntly, the blind tasting exam is too easy.

But all that is about to change, as in August the WSET are launching a new Level 3 which is quite different from, and I think better than, the previous one. The biggest and most immediate change is to the tasting exam. Under the current format, 95% of students were passing the exam, which is far too high a proportion. I remember dreading the tasting part of the exam, and before taking the course I went to Berry Bros & Rudd in London to take an evening class to prepare for the blind tasting. As useful as that class was in honing my tasting skills, it wasn't really necessary. The tasting wasn't truly "blind," as there was a choice of three wines at the bottom and it was obvious which one was correct. In my exam, the choice for the white wine was Soave, New Zealand Chardonnay, and Auslese Riesling. It was immediately apparent that the wine was a Chardonnay, and I could write a tasting note without even tasting the wine. That's what a lot of students were doing, which is why the WSET have changed the format of the exam. There will no longer be a choice of wines; in fact, the student will not even have to identify the wine. Instead, they will have to write an accurate tasting note based on what they are tasting rather than what they think the wine is. I think this is a much needed improvement: it will sharpen students' tasting skills and, by making the exam harder, it will better prepare students for the Diploma where students' tasting abilities have been found to be lacking.

The other change to the tasting part of the course is to the Systematic Approach to Tasting, the WSET's sometimes frustrating guide to tasting a wine. Whereas the aromas were previously divided into floral/fruit, spice/vegetable, and oak/other, now they are divided into primary, secondary, and tertiary and these are terms students have to use in the exam. This is to ensure that students are able to show where aromas in a wine come from: primary aromas (flowers, fruits, herbs) come directly from the grape; secondary aromas (oak, MLF, lees) come from winemaking practices; and tertiary aromas (oxidation, bottle ageing) come from maturation.

The theory part of the course is also different. Previously, classes were organised by region which meant a prolonged trudge through France's many, varied regions without looking at any other countries for several weeks. Now, the classes are arranged by style; for example the aromatic white wines of Alsace, Germany, Austria, and Hungary will be studied together rather than separately. I think this is a vast improvement, as continually comparing regions will force students to think about what makes each one distinct.

Another major change is that spirits will no longer be covered - hopefully, there will be a separate Level 3 for spirits in the near future. Madeira is also no longer covered, as apparently students found its terminology too difficult. Now, it's only to be studied for the Diploma. That's a great shame, but I guess we have to remember what a minor category madeira now is.

I'm excited to teach this updated version of Level 3 as I think it will be both more challenging and more invigorating for students. I'll let you know if that's the case in practice.