Cork Trials and Tribulations

This time of year is traditionally very slow in the wine industry.   January and February are the months where we can go on vacation and recover from Harvest.  This year is a little different and busier than normal.  Right now in the lab we are very busy with cork trials.

Red wine is aged in barrel typically between 18 and 24 months but white is a different story.  White wine is the product that supports the red wine.  It's made and bottled more quickly so we can make money within 6 months of bring in the wine instead of 2 and a half years (for the red wine to be bottled and sold).  So the Sauvignon blanc that we brought into the winery in September is ready to be bottled in March.  Bottling in March means having to conduct cork trials in January and February.

For wineries that use cork as a closure, cork trials are an inevitable part of the job.  The cork comes from Portugal and is harvested fresh every year, that is why every year we need to go through different lots and find the ones that we like.  Typically we get a 50 cork sample from a specific lot to trial.  I will trial between 15 and 20 lots.  Corks also come in different grades and price points.  You can get cork for as little as 30 cent each, or as much as $2.  The price range is huge and so are the quality differences, this is why we have to spend a long time selecting a lot.

We look at the color (wash: natural or peroxide), the amount of scarring or spots (lenticels), sometimes cheap low quality corks can have bits of the tree bark still visible.  After we grade them visually I put each cork into a glass jar filled with wine:

I'll prepare two sets at once.  This is all 100 corks that have soaked in wine over night:

 We soak them in wine to see what characters the cork could potentially impart on the wine, most importantly TCA.  That nasty aroma that ruins wine by making it smell unmistakably like wet dog.

After a 24 hour soak we dump the contents into a wine glass and smell (not taste) for anything funky or odd.  If just 1 cork in the lots of 50 has TCA, then we reject the entire lot and we start the process again.

This process is avoided if you use screw caps or glass closures, because there is not variability on those like there is in cork.  Also, screw caps can go down to as little as 13 cents a piece, or 20 cents if you want to get fancy.  When you are ordering 72, 000 corks, 20 cents a piece vs. $1 can really make a difference.

I could go on about how much I appreciate screw caps for white wine but I have sink full of dirty dishes to take care of.

-L

Unified Wine and Grape Symposium

Every year, once a year in January all the wine folks meet in Sacramento to shop for new equipment, schmooze and get taken out by our suppliers and distributors.  For three days everyone who has anything to with the wine industry shows up for the talks and trade show.  I've been going for 4 years and while the talks are generally interesting and informative the highlight is the trade show.  The Sacramento convention center is packed with booths of folks peddling their wares.

The Symposium is full of alternative packaging and closures (plastic corks, glass tops, screw caps, etc.).    Check out the wooden box!  This is wine-in-a-box's attempt to be classy and I think it works.  I want a wooden box in my kitchen.  I live alone and frequently I want wine with dinner but never feel like opening a whole bottle for myself.  Wine in a box would let pour myself a glass without the risk that I wouldn't be able to finish the bottle and have to pour it out because of oxidation.  The problem is these are mostly for restaurants, not personal use because they don't think there is a market for it.  There's got to be other single people out there like me who hate to open full bottles right?

Another option is the Tetra packs (the colorful juice box looking guys in the picture).  I'm a big fan of the juice boxes, but I'm a bigger fan of the cans:

The Sofia Sparkling cans are shamelessly marketed to girls like me (small/pink/bubbles/straws), but they are so fun and delicious I don't mind being a cliche.

However, one of my favorite new packaging methods I saw at the show was this bag:

 The company is more focused on filling it with mixed drinks and liquor than wine, but I could see it working for wine.  I mean, I would buy that.  In fact, I would fill that.  Which is really the problem.  These things exist, but a certain level of quality is missing from the equation.

I would like one of these dispensers in my home as well, however these are also for wine bars.  Again the issue is preserving the wine.  Dispensing so we have the maximum enjoyment with the least amount of waste.

This is a liquid nitrogen dosing machine.  It dispenses a small amount of liquid nitrogen into the head space of the bottle before bottling to displace the oxygen:

The show also has all the coopers (barrel makers) and the oak chip makers so you can fake your barrel characteristic.  This shows how you can shop around for specific characteristics (cinnamon?maple?vanilla?earthy?)  What ever you would like to be able to smell or taste in the glass, they have the oak for it.

The concrete egg people brought an egg to the show and I can't imagine what a nightmare it was to transport. This is an exact replica of the egg we have at our winery.

Another fun part of the show is the giant harvesting equipment they manage to fit in the convention center.  My camera could not capture the sheer monstrosity of this machine.  The people are so tiny!

The distilling equipment is also fun to see, although unfortunately not applicable to my life.  

I missed pictures of all the lab equipment and label makers and one hundred other categories of what is on display at the show.  There are 2 floors of show space and it took me 5 hours to walk through everything and that was without stopping at most of it.

Another tradition is the people you buy barrels or glass from or tanks take you out to dinner in Sacramento and get you drunk try to get you to order more.  I find it's a pretty effective method.

-L