Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/1007939
WINEMAKER INTERVIEW August 2018 WINES&VINES 57 team and I have many years of experience in making wine and bottling. However, to date we have only really given advance advice on the bottling of sparkling wines — crown cap versus a screwcap or traditional Champagne closure. We have advised customers away from screwcaps if maintaining higher amounts of carbon dioxide in the wine is important to them, such as in frizzante or semi-sparkling wines. For sparkling wines, we offer the option of crown cap or Champagne cork with a wire hood and the option of a foil hood. The decision of a producer using crown cap versus a traditional Champagne-cork closure, in my mind, is primarily a marketing decision and a consideration of the cost of goods. Both have their place, and, of course, a crown cap keeps the cost down for a value-priced or thinner-margin sparkling wine. Q Some of your customers prefer natural cork. What improvements have you seen with cork? What are the drawbacks at this point? Dobbes: The Cork Quality Alliance and cork vendors have done an admirable job of im- proving the quality and consistency of 100% natural cork closures. I have no doubt that the increased acceptance of screwcaps by consumers and winemakers alike had a lot to do with lighting new fires to improve over- all quality and decrease the incidence of off flavors and aromas due to TCA and other off characteristics. One issue we have seen on the bottling line is corks that are too dry. This causes excessive cork dust, some of which ends up in the bottle, as well as chipping. Dry corks are also hard on the corking machinery. The danger of using corks that are too dry is maintaining a good seal and, of course, holding up during the aging process. Dundee Mobile Bottlers highly encourages our customers to get their bottling supplies in-house well in advance of the bottling to avert last-minute surprises. We try to book a pre- bottling meeting with our clients. We offer the free service of measuring their cork humidity levels with our Finna Group cork moisture meter, measuring the dissolved oxygen (DO) in their wines prior to bottling, and conducting an immediate post-bottling total package oxy- gen (TPO) analysis with a Hach Orbisphere 3100 LDO optical DO analyzer. We can also very accurately measure the pre- and post- bottling CO 2 levels of their wines with a Stein- furth CDA-MK6 analyzer. We also use the Steinfurth in advance of sparkling bottlings to dial in the "sweet spot" for CO 2 level in the bottle and to test the CO 2 level during bottling. Over the years as a winemaker, I was frus- trated when wines I made showed in a less- than-flattering state. Specifically, there was too high an incidence of overtly corked wines or, even worse, wines that weren't obviously corked but were diminished and devoid of fi- nesse, with a lack of fruit. Consumers often don't understand that the cork is to blame, and they move on to the next producer. I have shared wines with highly experienced review- ers and critics who could not identify that a wine was not up to par because of the cork. Upon tasting a second bottle, their eyes lit up. Sometimes only the parent knows their child is sick. I found this extremely frustrating because I wanted to stay with cork closures for the higher-end wines, although I had become an advocate of screwcaps. Over the years, I have done a lot of testing and found that as much as 10% of the wines had changed in character from the cork closure. I don't mean that 10% of them were technically corked and showing TCA, but they were changed or diminished. Q How does the choice of closure affect the adjustments you make at bottling for things like SO 2 ? Dobbes: As winemakers/owners we put an in- credible amount of blood, sweat, tears, money and reputation on the line. Too often, we see that we get the ball close to the end zone only to fall short by relaxing prior to a key part of the winemaking process — bottling. The most important aspects of the bottling process are paying attention to pre-bottling DO levels and the amount of DO pickup at bottling. The type of closure and the technology of the bottling equipment both play a significant role in the total package oxygen (TPO) and there- fore require separate but collective consider- ation relative to the amount of free SO2 necessary at bottling. As a winemaker — and now a mobile-bottling-line owner — I am con- tinually surprised by the lack of attention paid to pre- and post-bottling DO levels and the TPO of the final product. How often have we had to apologize for a wine which has recently been bottled and is in prolonged bottle shock? How often have we seen young wines which reek of too much SO 2 ? I believe that the degree and duration of post- bottling shock and unnecessary elevated free SO 2 levels happen more often than necessary. The most frustrating aspect as a wine- maker over the years has been preparing wines for bottling which were showing beauti- fully and then "dumbing them down" in prep- aration for the bottling process. Specifically, the necessary evil of adding enough free SO 2 to protect the wine from the DO pickup during bottling and the recovery and journey back to its organoleptic ground zero many weeks or months later. Unfortunately, the bottling process and SO 2 necessary to mitigate DO pickup diminishes the wine along its contin- uum and prolongs the time that the wine is not showing all it has to offer. When your wine is ready to bottle and the free SO 2 is stable, the best bottling scenario is to go to bottle with the lowest necessary free SO 2 level relative to pH, residual sugar, red vs. white and projected release date. One ppm of DO pickup at bottling requires 4 ppm of free SO 2 to mitigate. WHEN SCREWCAPS ARE LEAKERS W inemaker Joe Dobbes of Dundee Mobile Bottlers in Oregon has experimented over the years with different screwcaps and liners, and he's using Stelvin now. One unfortunate experiment was with a type of screwcap (not Stelvin) that advertised variable rates of oxygen transfer. "After a couple of years of in-house testing, as well as looking at other wineries' testing, we then went forward with a bottling," Dobbes said. "Well, nobody ever thought of storing the screwcap-sealed case of bottles on their sides. Storing a screwcap-closed bottle vertically is normal, right? What a disaster. Nobody ever assumed that the closure would leak when the bottles were stored horizontally." Dobbes said his research on liners for the Stelvin has been done mostly through reading. "The Saranex liner is used more often and has a moderate oxygen transfer rate, with Saratin hav- ing a lower OTR," he said. He's currently using Saranex, he said, but wouldn't rule out using Saratin in the future. L.D. " Another consideration of DO pickup and the bot- tling process, especially with screwcaps, is the travel distance along the bottle conveyor between the filler and the capper." — Joe Dobbes