Closure on Closures

On my recent trip to buy wine for a large party I am having I found myself with a cart full of almost every type of bottle closure available. The only exception was that I didn't have a plastic with cage closure on the sparkling wine. That is most likely where I tend to be a snob on the matter. I have yet to have a sparkling wine I would serve to friends that had a plastic closure.

So here is how I rate the different closures and why. First, the screw-cap or Stelvin closure is great for picnics or other occasions where you don't want to carry additional weight, although the wine in a box or bag cuts down on that as well. Of late there are more tolerable to nice wines available in the box option. Also the screw-cap is good for gatherings where you have lots of people and not too many who are proficient with a corkscrew. I have no problem with these closures for wines that will be consumed within days of purchase or months. I don't like the idea of screw-caps for wines I want to age in the cellar. There is no conclusion I have seen that indicates the caps can allow for gradual maturing of wine.

Next, synthetic or composite corks are fairly prevalent as well. They are less expensive and effective to prevent spoilage, but..... they tend to be more difficult to remove than other closures and also very often difficult to replace in the bottle when a wine is not finished in one sitting.

Lastly is the traditional cork until recent shortages the understood champion of wine closures. With wine production booming and consumption up in the New World, the demand for quality cork surpassed the supply. Through the 90's corks got shorter and had a higher tendency to have the infection that causes wine to be "corked". Many say a wine is corked if it's spoiled in any way, but that's not correct. A wine is "corked" if it has a wet cardboard arroma and the fruit starts to diminish as the bottle has been open over time. It has nothing to do with the cork leaking which causes oxidation. It does not have to do with the wine getting hot somewhere, thus baking the wine. The other closures remove cork failure issues, but do not solve to abuse of the wine with heat. Simply put, you can't un-bake something.