Hey Oskaar,
I get your point - no doubt about it, bottle loss costs a lot of money.
I think what needs to be compared here are the dimensions we are talking of.
A lot of the American, Australian, French and also the vineyards in New Zealand are massive and have unbelievable output.
To big companies it makes a lot of sense to simplify methods and reduce costs this way. The small vineyards have to take what they are offered unless they want to go to extra costs of finding a supplier that will have and also deliver what they want.
I would describe it more as passive aggressive rather than active force. Sure nobody is telling them that they have to buy screw tops, it is a problem of availability and expense.
If the suppliers for winemaking gear stop offering a product that you have had till now and replace it with something slightly different - it's take what they have or leave it and pay more for what you had in the beginning.
Again, I am talking small scale here... an example:
"....many more of New Zealand’s 500 wine producers are using screw caps ...."(in the article you linked)
Austria is 83 858 km2 large, of which 65% are declared alpine, a total of 47% are woodland and we have
about 24 000 (twentyfourthousand) winemakers.
Austria fits into California five times, into New Zealand 3.2isch times.
In other words you can fit most of those vine yards on the back of a postcard – they are just so small.
From industry's point of view its the best thing that could happen, for the small winemakers - I doubt it.
They usually get the bottles back from the customers who bought their wine, which means they will have to buy some kind of additional capping device to get new screw caps onto their bottles.
Most of the work is done by hand.
But that is only a small problem compared to the work and time that will have to be invested in getting the remaining aluminium ring or coating off of an old screw cap bottle.
For winemakers that produce 1000-3000 bottles a year it means lashing out on new equipment and more hard work.
I think it will only be profitable for a hand full of winemakers. I don’t share the EU trend of “the bigger, the better”.
It has shown too many times in the past that that attitude drives many a small but wonderful craft into extinction together with its products.
What speaks for synthetic stoppers or screw caps is the fact that there are less problems regarding hygiene and quality issues. Some natural corks are infected with fungus causing the wine to get off tastes or even worse.
As I say , I am probably old fashioned - I prefer small local winemakers and the regional specialities that come with diversity. My personal view is that everything that poses a threat to diversity is also a threat to quality of life.
What the uncorking of a bottle is concerned, it’s my personal subjective feeling.
I like the slight tension and excitement when the cork starts squeaking as you slowly pull it from the bottle. Everyone present is silent and awaiting the moment the cork comes out with a plop which is followed by a barely audible sigh from the audience. ;D
Greets
Corvus – who is still sampling :