A Report plus Tasting Notes
It's been a decade since wine consumers were asked to abandon their centuries old tradition of cork stoppers. Previous debates had raged over the proper length and width of corks and over the quality of cork, the most favored being imported from Portugal. But the bottom line was that we were losing, on average, 5% of our wines to bad corks, even the best quality corks. Even sacred traditions lose their luster when five percent of our most treasured bottles go bad through no fault of our own.
In 1968 I visited Mendocino County pioneer winemaker John Parducci, who insisted that his wines would stand up to the best of Burgundy in blind tastings, in spite of the fact that he was offering Cabernet Sauvignon, not Pinot Noir. To be sure, his Cabernets were well made, round and delicious in the California style. But when queried about their aging possibilities (they were made to drink well at current release), John pontificating on the subject of corks. "^%$#," said he, "I'd put screw caps on them all if I thought I could get away with it." The wine world was not ready for screw caps.
A decade ago, however, the lower end of the wine market was ready for synthetic corks and many wineries made the move. They were more dependable than real cork. And they were much less expensive. Also less pleasant to open. They got stuck in the bottle neck and refused to be removed. Or they spun about freely with every turn of the corkscrew. As more and more wineries turned to synthetics, we grew more and more disheartened.
Well, John Parducci's dream has finally become a reality. Screw top closures are now about to inundate the wine market. The move had been forestalled because of the association of screw capped wines with the lowest of the low. We all knew that the first step a jug could take in image improvement had nothing at all to do with its contents, but with its closure. The surest way to begin an ascent up from the dregs of winedom would be to abandon the screw top for cork or synthetics.
So why would a well established quality winery make the opposite move and throw out the corks and embrace the screw? And who would be willing to take such an unnecessary risk?
It would take another John Parducci. John's gone now, but his spirit lives on in the mountains above Santa Cruz in the person of Randall Grahm, whose Bonny Doon Vineyard has flaunted all rules since its inception. His wines take their inspiration from flying saucers, from old telegrams, from fishermen, from escaped convicts, from Marcel Proust, and from the Pacific Rim. He makes ice wine from artificially frozen grapes and has the nerve to name one of his Italian styled wines Fiasco.
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