Natural cork? Artificial cork? Screwcap? There is much ranting in the world’s wine bulletin boards, and precious little data. Hence this suggestion for a smaller port house.
For your next declaration, bottle in cases of a dozen, each case containing four bottles with old-fashioned natural cork; four with new-fangled artificial cork; and four with no cork and a screwcap. Use the best quality items for all three types.
But the same wine. The same bottle (though obviously the screwcap’s thread would be redundant for eight of each twelve). Same bottling line. Same bottling date. If the port is coming from multiple containers, each case to be from only one container. The only variation is the closure and the labels.
Also gather data. Create a website in which punters doing side-by-side comparisons of the three types are asked to rate them and to record failures and differences. And publish the data.
Wine aficionados, even those who rarely drink port, would want to own a case or two of this experiment. And for the next several decades wine pundits will be citing the progress of these three variants on your port. A higher sale price now; more publicity in the wine press for a long time. Surely worth the small cost of doing this small experiment, and doing it right.
Finally, a request to readers. If you have suitable contacts in the trade, draw their attention to this suggestion.
Anecdotally, I have heard that some Bordeaux producers have been conducting discreet experiments.
The trouble is that Portugal is (I think) the world's biggest exporter of natural cork, and it would not go down well for a port producer to embrace alternatives.
However, there is one maverick producer who seems to thrive on controversy, who has previously spoken out about the high price of cork.
See if you can track down Mr Champalimaud at Q. Cotto - he may already have some experiments underway..
Tom
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I shall be sober and you will still be ugly - W.S. Churchill
I think that's where you'll find the problem is. Investments in changing to another method of closure are huge, and certainly something that small producers can't bear for one experiment.
Some years ago I talked to a renowned Loire producer, who was at the time thinking of changing to screwcap. He told me that it was a process of years. Not only because of the costs, but also because there are many forms and qualities of screwcap as well. It takes a while to figure out what works best on your wine.
I don't know about that, I only know what the producer told me (Beaumard, who in the meantime has indeed changed to screwcap). Maybe he was also referring to other solutions, like glass closure.
It was actually a very informative discussion. Mr. Beaumard has also undertaken many experiments with screwcaps and the fill level of the bottle, to see how for instance a 1cm lower fill would impact oxidation over the course of years. This can be very important if you want to achieve a similar level of oxidation that you get from prolonged ageing with cork closure. A very interesting man, and if you ever find yourself in the Loire valley, it is definitely worht visiting him and talking about the subject. And next to that, his wines are very good as well of course.
