Eleanor & Ray Heald (ERH): What further explanation did you give the consumer?

Jason Haas (JH): At Tablas Creek, we do our best to match the wine with the closure that allows the wine to age and evolve gracefully over time. It's not the same for all wines, just as one-size-fits-all methods for winemaking are not. A winemaker would revolt if told that he/she must choose either all barrels or all stainless steel tanks for every wine in the cellar.

ERH Yet, don't many winemakers accept such direction, without much research, when they choose screw cap closures for every wine they make?

JH Most of the coverage of alternative closures is terribly reductive, either taking the position that anyone who stuffs a piece of tree bark into a bottle of wine deserves the contamination they're likely to get, or talking in mushy language about the romance of opening a cork-finished bottle of wine. Probably the most public debate of this sort was played out in the March 15, 2005 issue of the Wine Spectator, where James Laube and James Suckling shared cover space with dueling articles entitled "Why I Hate Cork" and "Why I Love Cork".

ERH: Isn't it true that a significant percentage of all natural corks are tainted by 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA), a chlorine compound that makes a cork, and any wine in contact with it, smell and taste musty?

JH: Industry estimates of the amount of tainted corks range from three percent to as high as 10 percent. Even at three percent, this is a very large number of bottles that are ruined each year. For a winery the size of Tablas Creek (16,000 cases annually), this means that we could potentially release over 5,000 compromised bottles. If we're lucky, the consumer would recognize that a bottle was corky and request a replacement. If we're unlucky, the consumer just decides that he/she does not like Tablas Creek (or at least that particular bottling).

ERH: So it’s easy to see why so many winemakers are passionate advocates of alternative closures?

JH: Yes, on the surface, but the issue is far deeper than that. At Tablas Creek since 2002, we've bottled samples of the same wines, finished in both cork and screw cap. We've tracked evolution to garner some of our own impressions about various impacts of both options - cork or alternative closure.

ERH: Is this a totally organoleptic assessment?

JH: When we taste the wines, we do it blind, and ask ourselves (and anyone who joins us for these tastings) to describe what is tasted. We - and everyone who's joined us - describe consistent differences between the cork-finished and screw capped wines, and have noted these differences as early as three months after bottling.

ERH: Can you enumerate the differences?

JH: Wines bottled under screw caps taste fresher, higher in acid, younger, tighter, and more minerally. Wines bottled under cork taste mellow, sweeter, richer, more open and more evolved. By sweeter, I mean the way that people describe sweet oak. It also tastes lower in acid, which translates to a perception of sweetness.

ERH: Which is better: natural cork or screw cap?

JH: That's not a simple question. It depends on what we want the evolution of the wine to be. For an aromatic white, or for our Rosé, we like the brightness and freshness that the screw cap closure provides, and believe that the screw cap will have the additional benefit of keeping these wines (which are typically meant to be enjoyed young) tasting youthful longer.

ERH: Is it the same for all Tablas Creek whites and then all the reds?

JH: Brighter, younger characteristics do not benefit Tablas Creek Roussanne or the Roussanne-based Esprit de Beaucastel Blanc, both of which we want to develop the mellowness and sweetness that time brings to wines meant to age. Also, youthful characteristics discovered in wines under screw caps do not benefit most of our reds (including our Côtes de Tablas, Esprit de Beaucastel, Syrah, and Mourvèdre). In fact, the only red wine we've preferred the screw cap finish on is our 100 percent Counoise that we produce for our wine club.

ERH: What is there about the nature of Roussanne and a Roussanne-based wine, such as Esprit de Beaucastel Blanc, that requires that evolution in the bottle that other white grape varieties don't?

JH: Roussanne, unlike most white grapes, produces texture- and spice-driven wines rather than wines dominated by floral or fruit character. These textural qualities (a rich, almost oily texture, full body, and lots of sweet spices) become more pronounced with time. Under screw cap, we've found that the wine stays youthfully disjointed longer, and displays less richness. Other white grapes, particularly Viognier and Grenache Blanc, are more floral, and also more prone to oxidation. The screw cap preserves the floral freshness in these wines and extends their lifespan.

ERH: Can you explain more about why 2005 Counoise is better under screw cap than natural cork?

JH: The 2005 Counoise is a wine that we have chosen to bottle in screw cap because it's very prone to oxidation, it's meant to be drunk young, and because it's quite floral. We've also experimented with our Grenache-based Côtes de Tablas, which we think may benefit from screw cap in the long-term (although we're not ready to commit the bulk of our production to that). The Mourvèdre-based and Syrah-based wines appear to benefit from the cork, which makes sense as both varietals are prone to reduction and require more exposure to oxygen throughout the fermentation and aging process.

ERH: Oregon State University (OSU) researchers released a study on July 26, 2007 (which will appear in the American Journal of Enology and Viticulture) that may shed new light on consumer attitudes on wine closures. Anna Marin with OSU's Food Innovation Center is quoted in an Oregon Public Broadcasting release as indicating people could not tell the difference among wines under natural cork, synthetic cork and screw cap. "So, it's a perceptual thing from the cork closure -- it's an idea that the quality of the wine is not as high. And in reality, the wine in the bottle, it's just the same." Given your evaluations, how do you react to the OSU study and Marin's published remarks?

JH: I would need to know when (how long after bottling) these tests were done, and how the tests were conducted. Were the same wines offered side-by-side, so people could compare and contrast? I'd doubt it; side-by-side, the differences are startling, and even consumers who don't consider themselves expert tasters have noted it in our tests. And, the longer you wait after bottling, the more pronounced the differences are. I'd challenge any result that does not pick up the dramatically oxidized wines produced after only a few years under most synthetic corks.

ERH: Isn't all that you've mentioned related to oxygen management in bottled wine?

JH: There is logic to this. Corks come from the bark of cork oaks, and have a similar flavor (if untainted) to gentle oak from a barrel. In addition, they provide a measure of oxygen exchange with the wine (even if they provide a perfect seal between the wine and the outside air, corks contain oxygen in pores and share that with the wine). Screw caps provide a better seal, but don't provide either the flavor exchange or the oxygen exchange that a cork does. New screw cap models allow a tiny oxygen exchange with the air outside, but are new enough that we haven't felt comfortable experimenting (with them) yet.

ERH: Are you referring to the new Stelvin Lux+ screw cap, which is engineered to allow a small amount of oxygen to pass through the seal, imitating cork porosity?

JH: Yes, that's the example of this that I know. There may be others.

ERH: The January-February 2007 issue of the trade publication Practical Winery & Vineyard (PWV) published Australian Scorpex Wine Services research indicating "data shows that contact with oxygen after bottling has a significant effect on wine style and quality;" and lists oxygen sources that may have an impact on wine quality and style after bottling, including: dissolved oxygen in the wine, oxygen taken up by the wine as it is bottled, oxygen remaining in the bottled headspace and oxygen entering through or past the bottle closure after sealing. Headspace oxygen may be the largest oxygen source if it is not removed by nitrogen sparging. What is Tablas Creek doing to remove headspace oxygen in order to keep all its wines sounder?

JH: We draw a vacuum on all our wines before the cork is placed into the bottle (or before the screw cap is applied). This is standard practice in the industry.

ERH: Again, in PWV's July-August 2007 issue, enology faculty at the University of Bordeaux report on studies indicating that "oxygen permeation patterns for natural corks differed from other closures. Generally, oxygen ingress through natural corks decreased over time, mainly between the second and twelfth month." What specific differences in Tablas Creek Roussanne-based and red wines have tasters noticed in this time period?

JH: Evolution in the wines has seemed to us to be pretty gradual and consistent over time.

ERH: The cited Bordeaux study also found that "too low oxygen ingress rates, as shown by screw cap closures and glass ampoules, promotes the development of rubber or struck flint sulfide-like aroma characters (post-bottling reduction). Generally, cork stoppers presented intermediate performance." Have Tablas Creek tasters noticed this?

JH: Yes, very much. We try to make sure that the grapes that are prone to reduction (Roussanne, Mourvèdre, Syrah, etc.,) are bottled under cork.

ERH: What's the upshot of all this for the consumer?

JH: Next time a consumer hears a winery declare that they've switched entirely to screw cap, or a wine writer rhapsodize the ceremony of opening a cork-finished bottle, I hope they resist the suggestion that things are so simple. Rarely in life do either of two options, each with passionate advocates, have a monopoly on the truth. Debate between cork advocates and screw cap advocates is no different.

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