Wines & Vines

October 2014 Bottles and Labels Issue

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44 W i n e s & V i n e s O C T O b e r 2 0 1 4 he recent Wines & Vines Packag- ing Conference featured two tastings that showed how closure choice can affect wine quality. The first tasting, sponsored by Guala Closures, took place in the morning and featured wines by CADe Winery in Napa Valley. CADe is part of the PlumpJack Group, and John Conover, general manager of PumpJack Winery and partner in CADe, said the company had been open to alternative clo- sures because the founding partners saw first-hand how unpleasant a corked wine was for customers of the original Plump- Jack Wine & Spirits shop in San Francisco, Calif. He said that experience helped moti- vate the company's willingness to bottle its estate wines under screwcap as well as par- ticipate in a study on closures with the University of California, Davis. Both sessions, held in the demonstration kitchen of the former Copia building in Napa, Calif., drew a full crowd of 75 peo- ple. The tastings were conducted with Rastal glassware from Germany, provided by conference sponsor Chrislan Ceramics. Dr. Anita oberholster, cooperative extension specialist in enology for UC Davis, provided an overview of the research project that is being headed up by Dr. Andrew Waterhouse, as well as some early conclusions. "The first ques- tion the research is attempting to answer is whether variability using a specific clo- sure is large enough that a consumer can taste the difference," oberholster said. Collaborative closure study PlumpJack and UC Davis arranged to have 200 bottles of the 2011 CADe Sauvignon Blanc bottled with an Amorim natural cork, Nomacorc Select 300 synthetic cork or Amcor Saranex screwcap, for a total of 600 bottles in the study. The rate of oxida- tion was observed through color darkening (or color absorbance) over time as mea- sured by a spectrophotometer, with each bottle acting as its own control. Using each bottle as a data point, the researchers were able to create a slope based on the observed oxygen transmission rate (oTR). Based on the study, screwcaps appear to offer the most consistent oTR, followed by synthetic corks. The greatest variation came from natural corks. oberholster said getting a better understanding of clo- sure variability should help winemakers make informed decisions at bottling to ensure wines conform to a specific style. While the screwcap and synthetic clo- sures did a better job of preserving the wine as it tasted at bottling, natural corks added "more aging character," which resulted in a more complex wine. Depend- ing on the wine or winemaker, this aged character could be a desirable trait. "At the end it is also about helping the winemaker to make informed decisions based on objective data," oberholster said. "We are currently planning the sen- sory testing, so the answer to the key question has yet to be answered." Preserving versus aging The PlumpJack team including CADe winemaker Danielle Cyrot brought bottles of the Sauvignon Blanc that is part of the UC Davis study as well as its 2008 CADe Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon, which was bottled under screwcap and nat- ural cork. The tasting was conducted blind, Tasting the Effects of Wine Closures Conference examines sensory effects of natural corks, screwcaps and synthetics By andrew adams the wines with natural corks (A) show a bigger disparity in color than synthetic closures (B) or screwcaps (C) because of cork's wider range of oxygen transmission (otr). the darker 'high slope' wines had the highest rate of color absorption over time, meaning a greater otr. danielle Cyrot is the wine- maker for PlumpJack Group's CAdE Winery. doug Fletcher is the vice president of wine- making for the ter- lato Wine Group. Low slope Med slope High slope (A) (B) (C) Low slope Med slope High slope Low slope Med slope High slope p a c k a g i n g BOTTLES &LABELS UC DAVIS

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