Every year, one of the more rewarding experiences related to a wine show is the judge’s debriefing after the tasting done for the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show (what used to be the Fairbairn Trophy Wine Show). I am not a big fan of stickers-on-bottles-to-sell-wine, so it’s great if a bit of opinion and information comes out of the gathering of a few respected wine persons. This year the international crew were Vanya Cullen of Cullen’s Wines, Philippe Bascaules, the silent technical director of Chateau Margaux, Michael Schuster, UK wine educator and Richard Kelley, of Richards Walford Wines.
Every year one “big issue” seems to raise its head (whether orchestrated for media consumption or not I do not know) and this year it wasn’t a fresh one – but one that is still ham-stringing our industry especially in the fresh white categories. It is, of course, corks and their damn taint. Cullen was particularly outspoken, calling it a “random winemaking element” that stand in the way of pure expression of what the cellar wants to achieve. Bascaules, on the other hand, was silent; when he did speak he cautioned that the effect and interaction of (good) cork on wine was still largely unknown. In other words, it may have a very important role to play in wine maturation.
I say bring on the screwcap – if only to get the cork industry to clean up their act and find answers to these questions.
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