Wines & Vines

38 WINES&VINES Collector's Edition COLLECTOR'S EDITION Closures Tradition has given way to competitive market Cork producers will tell you consumers expect and relish the tradition of pulling corks from bottles. Winemakers, the wine trade and knowl- edgeable consumers, however, would argue that tradition shouldn't come with a one-in-10 chance that the wine smells like a wet dog and tastes "off" (see TCA, page 62). How a wine bottle is sealed for the market has changed dramatically in recent decades, as winemakers now have their pick of options such as screwcaps, different types of treated corks and closures manufactured from new materials. Founded in 1996, with the finan- cial and technical booking of five major Califor- nian wine companies, Neocork was an early player in the technical closures category that has come to be dominated by Nomacorc, which is producing more closures made with plant-based materials. The company has also been a leader in studying the role of oxygen and packaging as well as providing tools such as its Nomasense line of sensors to determine total package oxy- gen. DIAM jumped out to an early lead in the agglomerated cork closure market with its pro- cess of using supercritical carbon dioxide to strip impurities such as TCA from the granules that are later compressed into a cork. DIAM also touted its closures as providing a certain oxygen transfer rate (OTR) to help winemakers select the right closure for winemaking and bottle- aging goals. The world's largest cork producer, Amorim, has invested heavily in its NDTech line of individually screened natural corks, and an- other Portuguese vendor with U.S. facilities, Cork Supply, provides a similar product as well as a guaranteed technical cork. John Daniel Jr. Shaped Napa Valley's Inglenook wines into collectibles The man who led Napa Valley's Inglenook win- ery to produce one of the first post-Prohibition wines to be collected by connoisseurs was John Daniel (1907-1970), the grandnephew of In- glenook founder Gustave Niebaum. He studied engineering at Stanford and became a pilot after graduation. In 1933, Prohibition was re- pealed, and Inglenook was once again produc- ing wine. Daniel became increasingly involved in the day-to-day business and, on his mother's death, became owner of the already famous Rutherford estate from 1939 to 1964. Daniel brought innovation to the industry, touching not only the wines and wine business of Napa Valley, but of California as well, accord- ing to his daughter Robin Daniel Lail. He adopted varietal rather than generic labels; experimented with new varieties including Charbono, so-called Red Pinot and Pinot St. George; and crafted Cabernet Sauvignons that aged well for decades. Daniel was the first to put "Napa Valley" as an appellation on his wines and was a pioneer in vintage-dating bottles. He played a key role in the founding of the Napa Valley Vintners Associa- tion and in creating awareness of Napa Valley as an appellation of distinction. Kenneth Fugelsang Winemaster at Fresno State's commercial winery Ken Fugelsang (1946-2017) was a professor of enology at California State University, Fresno and a seminal figure who helped establish the university's high reputation for a practical edu- cation in viticulture and enology. Fugelsang was a recipient of some 50 research grants totaling approximately $5 million. He was recognized as one of the world's most authoritative experts on Brettanomyces and served as winemaster of Criticism Wine writers evolved from advocates and enthusiasts to critics The role of wine writers, reviewers and critics expanded steadily in its influence on consumers and the wine industry itself from the 1970s onward. Midcentury writers like Frank Schoonmaker and Leon Adams were interested in popularizing wine, but as the Cali- fornia wine renaissance got fully underway, writers like Frank Prial in New York, Hugh Johnson in Britain and Robert Balzer in Los Angeles came to prominence. They were joined by wine specialist publications like Wine Spectator in 1976, the Wine Advocate in 1978, Wine & Spirits in 1981 and Wine Enthusiast in 1988. With this wave came the 100-point scale (first used widely in wine reviews by the Wine Advocate) and the growing influence exerted on American wine styles and, thus, grapegrowing and winemaking practices by the scores and criticism written by James Laube, Robert M. Parker Jr. and others. In particular, the leading critics' praise of riper, richer, often oakier wines was embraced by their readers and eventually precipitated shifts at the winemaking level that have largely persisted until today. Harriet Lembeck (left), Hugh Johnson, Frank Prial and Leon Ad- ams congratulate Lembeck upon receiving the 1983 Perpetual Trophy for Excellence in Wine Writing from Wines & Vines.

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