Better matured with screw cap

We should all know this by now. Numerous studies by renowned research institutes from all over the world have been proving for years and decades that wines benefit just as much from a screw cap as they do from a natural cork, provided the latter is of good quality – and unfortunately this is far too often not the case. Cork taint, tannin ingress, oxidation, runners, crumbling material, limited shelf life – the list of shortcomings of natural corks is long. Nevertheless, thanks to a deep emotional bond between winemakers and wine drinkers that cannot be explained rationally, the traditional stopper is still usually the first choice, especially for high-quality wines. While cork has a dubious image as a natural product, the screw cap is still plagued by prejudices that date back to the pioneering days when many seals still contained plasticisers such as bisphenol-A. In the meantime, however, sealing discs made from sensory-neutral and harmless Saran tin have long since established themselves.

Many advocates of natural corks point out that the wine can “breathe” better under a natural cork and therefore matures more attractively. But in many cases the oxidation caused by a leaking natural cork leads to the premature destruction of the contents of the bottle. Whether the wine was matured reductively or oxidatively is irrelevant.

Measurements show that the range of oxygen exchange with screw caps is far lower than with natural corks. However, the value ranges overlap. An ideal natural cork therefore hardly differs from a screw cap in terms of gas tightness.