Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/708909
August 2016 WINES&VINES 39 PACKAGING in Sardinia, which Foster likened in flavor to somewhere between Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio. "Now that we've made that leap," he said, "We'll likely start doing Pinot Noir rosé under screwcap as well." For this new endeavor, he relied on Amcor and its Stelvin screwcaps. "They did a nice job with the top emboss work, custom paint, and they are local. We let them guide us on liners: We didn't want to go with the most oxygen transfer." If Mahoney decides to move forward with screwcaps, "We'll probably have to do more research," Foster said. "We don't want a lot of oxygen, but not zero." The decision about closures isn't always about winemaking, Foster said. "Being in step with what the market wants: The synthetic battle was harder 10 years ago. It's now less of an issue. Now, when you are going to mar- ket, it's screwcap. But big chunks of the country still like a cork." Keep your ears open Charles Tsegeletos, director of winemaking operations at 250,000-case Cline Cellars in Sonoma, Calif., uses an array of natural cork, twin-disk corks and screwcaps for his wines, which retail for an average of $23 per bottle. Cline specializes in red wines (about 85%), with "a little rosé" (about 2%) and the balance white varietals, which are topped with screw- caps. "Screwcaps have gotten so good, it's an easy call. For convenience, white and rosé are all in screwcap," he said. His reserve range of reds are sealed with twin-disk technical corks (with natural cork on each end), which he sources from Portocork, along with his natural corks. Tsegeletos recom- mended these: "In five to seven years, we've never seen a failure," he said. "We used to go out for bid," he recalled. "But once you find a supplier with a competi- tive price and few failures, it's one thing I don't have to do after 10 years." Cline has its own bottling line, and Tsegeletos acknowledged that switching from one closure to another does takes time. However, "Bottling lines have gotten better; they can handle both Bordeaux and Burgundy-shaped bottles." "Wine shouldn't be put at risk for marketing reasons." —Ken Foster, Mahoney Vineyards