Italy, land of the vine

Italy has perhaps the best claim to be the oldest wine-making country in the world. When the Greeks arrived here in ancient times they dubbed it Oenotria, or land of the vine, since grapes were already being cultivated.

Since prehistoric times the various peoples inhabiting the Italian peninsula have been experimenting with vine-growing and wine-making, resulting in a rich variety of wines and wine styles, made from an array of indigenous grape varieties, as well as those imported from other countries. And, this being Italy, wine is inextricably linked with the country’s rich cultural heritage, not least its regional cuisine.

So far so good. But there are problems: all that variety can be confusing for consumers. Here’s one example: if you see Barbaresco on a bottle of wine, is that the grape variety, the area where it’s made, or the name of that particular wine? Well it’s the area of production, but that’s not obvious to many wine shoppers. And once you’ve got that straight then you come across the name Gaja on a pricey bottle of wine: he’s the most famous winemaker in Barbaresco, but declines to put the word Barbaresco on the label.

Rich complexity, yes. Confusion, certainly. Italy’s cheerful disregard for anything that smacks of kow-towing to authority, combined with a deep sense of regionality can serve to turn consumers off Italian wines altogether. However, I urge you to persist and to discover the wine riches on offer, beyond the world of Pinot Grigio.

Yes, poor old Pinot Grigio. Not so long ago it was the in wine, immensely popular, until it was supplanted in our affections by Sauvignon Blanc. Now, if you bring along a bottle of Pinot Grigio to a dinner party you might as well be saying “Look, I’m a bit out of touch and don’t know much about wine.” There is so much more to Italy and Italian white wines, that we shouldn’t overlook them in favour of yet another New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

First of all, a much-abused wine style that we all think we know: Soave. This region suffered from decades of mistreatment at the hands of unambitious growers, resulting in high yields and oceans of watery, dull wine. More recently, there has been an effort to drive up quality and rediscover the greatness of this wine. The leading light has been Leonildo Pieropan, whose Soaves start at £15 a bottle (and Pieropan is the big name on the label – you have to look hard to find the word Soave, tucked away on the back label). Majestic has a slightly cheaper version in the shape of Inama Soave Classico 2006 at £12.49, down to £9.99 when you buy any two Italian wines. This wine is anything but dull, and is full of perfumed, crisp fruit. And if you’re feeling rebellious you could make your second bottle of Italian wine Banfi’s Pinot Grigio, San Angelo 2007, normally £9.99, but down to £7.99 if you buy two. Not cheap, but if you want to know what Pinot Grigio should really taste like, then give it a go (maybe in the privacy of your own home).

To understand Italian wines, white or red, you have to grasp their function: they are meant to accompany food. Italians are rather perplexed by the British tendency to drink wine when it’s not part of a meal and their wine styles reflect their original function. White wines, therefore, are not meant to dominate, but to complement food so their flavours are designed to be muted and subtle. A prime example of this is Gavi, a wine from the northeast of Italy, made from the Cortese grape. It’s unoaked and offers understated pear fruit combined with delicious minerality. Majestic’s Gavi La Lancellotta 2007 at £7.49 (£5.99 if you buy two) is a great introduction to the style.

Italian red wines also offer plenty of, sometimes overwhelming, variety. What I like about many of them for summer drinking is that they provide refreshment along with the fruit and alcohol, one of the hallmarks of food-friendly wines. All red wines are an interplay of fruit, supported by a structure of tannin (the “stewed tea”, mouth-drying substance) alcohol and acid. It’s the acidity that gives Italian wines their refreshing quality, which is most important in warmer weather. If you generally steer clear of Italy when choosing wines, then I would urge you to try Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Primitivo 2007, £5.99. It comes from Puglia, the heel of Italy, which every year produces more wine than the whole of Australia. This deep purple wine is intensely flavoured with aromatic, fleshy black fruit. A crowd-pleaser, yes, but it could be the wine to win converts to Italy.

Do you drink Valpolicella? If you do, you’re a rare breed. Since we’ve been seduced by the power and exuberance of new world wines, we’ve come to view wines which are restrained, with a light touch, as somehow inferior. Yet on a summer’s evening, Valpolicella, with its low tannins and gently cherryish fruit is like a soothing balm. Waitrose stocks the eminently quaffable Vignale Valpolicella 2007 for £4.79 – and it’s only 12% alcohol.

Really understanding all of Italy’s wines is undoubtedly a life’s work, but there’s so much on offer from all over the country, from the crisp, aromatic wines of the German-speaking Alto Adige in the north, to the warm, spicy reds of Sicily, that everyone is bound to find something that they like. Morellino di Scansano? Fiano di Avellino? Bring it on!

And the winner is...

OK, you’re scanning the supermarket or off-licence shelves for a nice bottle to take home that evening. Such a lot of choice, so many bottles: how to decide? That one’s got a pretty label, this other one’s discounted, but does that just mean they want to be rid of it? Hold on, this one’s won some sort of gold medal at a competition, obviously someone thinks it’s good, let’s go for that one.

Have you ever been swayed by the fact that a wine has won a medal in a competition? And have you ever wondered just what winning a medal means – what has the wine been through to deserve one?

Well, having just completed participating as an associate judge in the International Wine Challenge 2008, I have a better idea of how those medal stickers get onto the bottles. The Wine Challenge is the biggest and best known wine competition in the UK and has been dubbed “the Oscars of the wine world” by Jancis Robinson MW.

What do the judges know about the wines they are tasting?
All wines are tasted blind: judges do not see the labels, or get any hints of the identity of the wine beyond the fact that they are, for example, Syrah-based blends from the Languedoc. Wines are grouped together in “flights”, so that New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs are judged together, rather than mixed in with white Burgundy, for example. There is no information regarding price of the wines: judges do not know if they are tasting a £40 bottle of wine or a £5 one.

So does one person’s taste decide the fate of a wine?
No: the wines are tasted by a panel of 4 or more judges. All wines in a “flight” are tasted and rated by the panel independently, then scores are compared and each wine discussed in turn. Like a jury in a court case, the panel tries to come to a consensus on each wine, though sometimes a “majority verdict” is the only way to move forward if there are differences of opinion. The International Wine Challenge employs experienced Panel Chairpeople, a fair dollop of Masters of Wine among them, to manage each panel, so plenty of knowledge, experience and expertise is lavished on the wines.

How many wines does a judge taste in any one day?
You might be surprised or horrified to find that many judges assess around 100 wines, or more, a day. How can they possibly maintain judgment and critical faculties by the 99th wine? Don’t forget, the judges at this competition will be very used to assessing this quantity of wines on a regular basis as part of their jobs – yes, it’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it. And of course all wines are spat out!

Can competitions like this ever be fair?
Wines do get more than one bite at the cherry. During the first week of tasting, wines are either rated as potentially medal-worthy, Commended, or dismissed as not up to scratch. The potential medal winners will be retasted during the second week and assigned either a Bronze, Silver or Gold medal – or downgraded to Commended, or even given nothing at all. A wine will be assessed at least twice on two different days if it is to be judged worthy of any colour of medal.

Equally, wines that have walked away with nothing after the first tasting are all retasted by the inner circle of wine experts who run the competition – to make sure a panel hasn’t been overly harsh and to ensure consistency.

Do the medals mean anything?
During three days of tasting at the Wine Challenge, and well over 200 wines, the panels I sat (or stood) on discussed the possibility of only 2 or 3 gold medals. So medals are not given out lightly, just to reward a certain percentage of the entries. Gold medals in particular are hard to earn and reflect truly impressive wines – regardless of whether they cost £5 or £50.

No competition is ever perfect but, having had the opportunity to peek under the skirt of this particular one, I feel wines are judged as fairly as possible, from the Indian Chenin Blancs (yes, they exist) to the vintage Champagne.

Results of the International Wine Challenge are available from 20th May on www.internationalwinechallenge.com.

Wines for Spring

Snow and hail showers one minute, bright sunshine the next – it must be Spring. Thinking of wines to drink at this time of year has its problems. Are the skies grey and the temperatures low, making you want to reach for a chunky, comforting red? Or has the sun emerged and you feel that Summer is surely only round the corner? When the weather is “in betweeny” like this, you need versatile wines that can adapt to changing conditions.

My first bit of advice is to have something red and something white and chilled ready for the off. If you’re braving an optimistic outdoor lunch, or even the first barbecue of the year, you probably want something cool to match the mood. But when the sun goes down at this time of year, the cold soon returns, so you might be after a spicy red to warm the cockles. Secondly, I find rosés just too summery for this time of year, so I’d rather hold off on those until the warm weather is really with us.

So, what to drink? For white wines, there’s something innately Spring-like in the herbaceous aromas and zingy acidity of Sauvignon Blanc. We are currently spoilt for choice in this country for Sauvignons, so attached are we to its gooseberry, leafy charms. You still need a little more weight and depth of flavour now than in Summer, when coolness and refreshment are of prime importance, so go for the fuller styles, such as those from New Zealand and Chile. Threshers/Wine Rack has Vidal Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand at £7.99 single bottle price or £5.33 as part of their 3 for 2 offer. Or you could try their Saint Clair Vicar’s Choice Sauvignon Blanc for £11.99/£7.99 for classic New Zealand pungent, ripe fruit. Majestic have a good value southern French Sauvignon Blanc, Les Fumées Blanches, which is £5.99 or down to £4.79 if you buy two.

If you fancy a change from the Sauvignon norm, head to Waitrose to sniff out a bottle of Hatzidakis Assyrtiko from the Greek Island of Santorini for £8.99. Banish all thoughts of evil Retsina and open your mind to the zesty, mineral intensity that the Assyrtiko grape produces on Santorini’s volcanic soils. I’m a big fan of this wine and it’s a great one to give to friends blind and play “guess the country” with.

Viognier is another grape that fits well with this time of year: it has a lovely apricotty/peachy character, plus some spice. When the weather hots up some can lack freshness because of their lowish acidity, but at this time of year their lush fruit is very welcome. Anakena Single Vineyard Viognier from the Rapel Valley in Chile is available at Threshers/Wine Rack for £8.49 or £5.66 if you buy three (when are they going to give up this absurd pricing I wonder, £5.66 is the real price, so don’t let yourself pay the higher one). This made me think more of pineapple than apricots, but delicious nevertheless.


What about reds?
Very light reds, like Beaujolais, which work really well slightly chilled, are, for me, all about Summer drinking: we’re not quite there yet. That rather dull-sounding term, mid-weight, is what it’s all about and here are some of my favourites.

The Loire is mostly known here for its white wines, but it does produce a fair amount of red. We are generally not as keen on them as the French are themselves, but they are great “wine bar” wines (as in good to drink on their own or with a token amount of food) and just right for Spring. Threshers/Wine Rack offers the uninspiringly-named Haut Poitou Rouge, made from a blend of Pinot Noir, Gamay and Cabernet Franc at £6.99/£4.66. Plenty of juicy fruit with a smoky edge to it and (important for lighter-bodied reds) low tannins. The vintage I tried was 2005, which was particularly good, so try to make sure you find the same one. Joguet Les Petites Roches from Chinon in the Loire is a 100% Cabernet Franc, available at Waitrose for £8.35. It’s rather more weighty and serious than the Haut Poitou Rouge, so one to have with food.

Pinot Noir is a supremely flexible grape which can suit many different foods and occasions. I recommended it to go with Christmas turkey and I make no apologies for bringing it up again now. Pinot Noir’s low tannin and softly spicy fruit are the keys to its adaptability – it’s great with or without food, and is light-bodied enough to match up to warming weather. Villa Maria Private Bin Pinot Noir from Marlborough, New Zealand is available from Wine Rack at £11.99/£7.99 and is certainly worth the 3 for 2 price. From Chile, Waitrose have Valdivieso Pinot Noir Reserva at £8.99, with plenty of ripe, but not overdone, fruit.

A final note: I’ve checked all prices for accuracy as far as possible at the time of writing. However, due to budget increases on duty as well as rising costs in other areas, wine prices are in a rather fluid state – be aware that prices may have changed by the time you go shopping!

Organic and biodynamic wines

In the Autumn, collect some fresh cow manure, put it into a cow horn and bury it in your vineyard on the Autumn equinox. Six months later, at the Spring equinox, dig up the horn, remove the manure and put it in a barrel of water. Using a long stick, stir vigorously for one hour: the biodynamic preparation 500 (cow horn manure) is now ready to spray on your vineyard, preferably when the moon is descending and in front of a “fruit” or “root” constellation. This is just one example of a variety of preparations used by biodynamic wine growers, used in harmony with the movements of the moon and planets.

Sound a bit weird? Certainly not mainstream and surely only practised by muesli-eating, goat-wool sock-wearing hippie types? Well, the news from the wine world this week is that Domaine de la Romanée Conti, in the heart of Burgundy and makers of the most expensive wines in the world, have converted all their vineyards to biodynamics from the 2007 vintage.

So what is biodynamics and where did it come from? Biodynamic agriculture was inspired by the teachings of Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner (best known in this country for Steiner schools) at the beginning of the twentieth century. In essence, it takes organic cultivation as a starting point and adds elements of Astrology (the influence of the Moon and planets) along with Homeopathic techniques and principles. Despite sounding New Agey, it can be seen as an attempt to return to an earlier era of agriculture, before mechanisation, before agro-chemicals, before calendars even, when farmers relied on the movements and phases of the moon to guide their activities.

What is the difference between organic and biodynamic?

To drastically over-simplify, organic viticulture essentially lists what a grower CANNOT do: they must not use any man-made chemicals to produce their crop of grapes. Incidentally, there is legally no such thing as “organic wine” in the EU: the technically correct term is “wine made from organically-grown grapes”.

Biodynamic growers do not have to be certified organic (though many of them are), but they should use biodynamic preparations, such as the cow horn manure above to ensure the health of the vineyard soils and vines. The annually produced Biodynamic Sowing and Planting Calendar provides information on planting times (based on the position of the moon) and categorizes each day as either flower, root, leaf or root to guide vineyard operations. If all this sounds too wacky to take on, consider this: Thresher’s/Wine Rack, not noted for sandal-wearing tendencies, make sure they run their wine-tastings for the press on fruit days, as they find wines taste consistently better then than on, say, leaf days.

How do you spot a biodynamic (or organic) wine?
Easier said than done sometimes. Some biodynamic growers choose not to become certified by either Demeter or Biodyvin, the two official bodies. Even some who are certified choose not to mention the fact on their labels: their decision to use biodynamics is to make what they consider better wine, it’s not a marketing technique to appeal to the consumer. In general, each country has its own organic certification body, such as Ecocert in France. Again, though, not all organic growers choose to be certified, or to put any official recognition on the label, preferring the wines to do the talking. My own experience leads me to the conclusion that, the bigger the word “organic” is on a bottle’s label, the poorer the wine will be.

So, it can be hard to spot an organic or biodynamic wine, and the most clearly-labelled ones may not be the best. The good news, however, is that you don’t need to fork out for wines from Domaine de la Romané Conti in order to get a taste of high quality biodynamic wines. Here are some of my favourite wines as well as tips on where to look for organic and biodynamic wines.

If buying organic is important to you, then you should head to www.vintageroots.co.uk. This online specialist stocks only organic or biodynamic wines (a s well as beers and ciders) and all are clearly identified as biodynamic, where applicable. Les Caves de Pyrène, in Artington just outside Guildford, is a happy hunting ground for those who are interested in what Les Caves like to call “real wines”. They stock plenty of organic and biodynamic French wines, but also have a great range of Italian wines and some crackers from New Zealand – including the biodynamic Felton Road Pinot Noir at £21.27.

Of the supermarkets, Waitrose is the best at offering a wide range of high quality organic and biodynamic wines. I would pick out Domaine Huet’s delicious whites from the Loire, made from the Chenin Blanc grape: Le Mont Sec is £15.25. They also have what is, as far as I know, the only biodynamic Champagne: Fleury NV at £24.99. Vintage Roots stock the entire Fleury Champagne range, including their delicious rosé at £28.

If reading about biodynamic wines gives the impression that only highly-priced wines could possibly be made in this way, think again. Emiliana Organicos is the largest organic and biodynamic winery in Chile and its Adobe range of wines is available from £4.99 at Majestic. Adobe Carmenère and Merlot are great value wines, but if you want to see what a couple more pounds a bottle gets you, check out the Emiliana Organicos’ Novas wines at Vintage Roots.

Australia in general seems to shy away from organic and, especially, biodynamic wine – with notable exceptions including Cullen in Western Australia’s Margaret River. Vanya Cullen’s reds are the stars of her range and you can get a taste of them at Godalming-based merchant Imbibros, who list her Ellen Bussell Red at £10.95.

Chapoutier is one of the best-known producers in France’s Rhone Valley, but many of its fans don’t know that it is also the largest French producer of biodynamic wines. Their top wines, Hermitage, Cote Rôtie and the like are well in excess of £25 a bottle, but Chapoutier make a huge range of wines and Vintage Roots lists their Côteaux du Tricastin for £7.25. Just a word of warning: Chapoutier make wines from their own vineyards, which are all organic and biodynamic. But they also make wines under the Chapoutier label where they have bought in grapes from other growers: there are no guarantees on organic/biodynamic credentials for these wines. It’s not easy to tell which you’re faced with – sometimes it’s not easy being green!

Easyjet and the Gentleman's Club

Easyjet and the gentleman’s club: modernity versus tradition in Spanish wines

There was a neat illustration of the clash of tradition and modernity at a seminar at last week’s annual Wines from Spain tasting. Telmo Rodriguez, an arch moderniser unafraid to explore new wine regions and wine-making techniques, was very nearly late for his speech because his Easyjet flight was delayed. At the other end of the table, Javier Hidalgo, whose family has been making sherry in pretty much the same way since the time of Napoleon, was going to be making his way to his gentleman’s club in London that evening, to dine on beef cheek.

Spain, for many UK wine drinkers, is synonymous with a single classic wine region: Rioja. Rioja’s wines are traditionally made of a blend of grapes, dominated by Tempranillo, which is then aged in oak barrels and in bottle for an amount of time prior to release. The longer a wine spends in oak and bottle before it is sold determines its rung on the quality ladder of Rioja: Joven (or young wines) have no oak and little time in bottle; a Rioja Crianza must spend a year in oak and a year in bottle; Reserva a year in oak and two years in bottle; at the top of the ladder is Gran Reserva, which must spend two years in oak and three years in bottle. In the UK we are most likely to see Crianza and Reserva wines. Don’t worry too much about the details: even Telmo Rodriguez, who has been making wine in Rioja all his adult life, says he can’t recall exactly what all the regulations are!

This illustrates one of the complexities of Rioja: not all Riojas abide by the rules and a growing number of winemakers are ignoring the Reserva/Gran Reserva framework and simply making their wine in the way they wish, with just the word “Rioja” on the label. Even within the traditional quality labels winemakers are striving to make a different style of Rioja: using 100% Tempranillo instead of the traditional blend, using 100% new oak barrels to give a more intense vanilla gloss to the younger wines. To further complicate matters, the Spanish wine authorities are planning to allow an additional three grape varieties to be added to the traditional blend of Tempranillo, Garnacha (Grenache), Graciano and Mazuelo. You probably haven’t heard of those last two varieties – and I can guarantee you won’t have come across any of the new varieties either. In today’s environment, it’s getting harder and harder to predict the style of wine you’re going to find in the bottle when you see the name Rioja on the label. Is Spain in danger of over-complicating its most famous wine and in the process driving away wine-drinkers?

In the past Rioja was one of the most distinctive and easily understood wine styles. The blend of grapes, coupled with barrel and bottle ageing give a soft and harmonious wine with distinctive strawberryish fruit and a vanilla edge from the oak. Progressing from the younger, more fruity, Crianza styles, the vanilla, leather and spice flavours come to the fore as you move onto the Reserva and Gran Reservas. You can still find Riojas in this style if this is what you’re looking for: Marques de Murrieta is probably the best known of the traditionalists: their Reserva is around £13 and up, depending on the vintage, while Marques de Riscal’s Reserva 2002/3 is at Majestic for £13.99. Cune is also a reliable name to watch out for: their Crianza 2004/5 is stocked by Majestic for £6.99, or £4.99 if you buy two. Waitrose have the consistently enjoyable Vina Herminia Crianza 2003 at £7.49.

If you’d like to have a try of the more “modern” styles of Rioja out there have a look for Muga’s Rioja Seleccion Especial 2003, £18.99 at Majestic. Telmo Rodriguez’ Riojas are available at Adnams (www.adnams.co.uk) starting at £6.99.

So why has Rioja become more complex to buy and, arguably, more interesting to drink? Humans are curious creatures, prone to experimentation and competition – it’s only natural that winemakers should feel the urge to push the boundaries of their wines and not simply slavishly copy the practices of their fathers and grandfathers (not many female winemakers in Rioja) simply because they are “traditional”. If a winemaker feels they can make a better wine by using more new oak, or ageing for less time in barrel, wine laws alone are not going to stop them.

The end of cheap Aussie wine?

When you think of Australian wines, what comes to mind? Big, beefy reds, mostly made from Shiraz and rich, tropical fruit whites, probably Chardonnay – right? And what about price: around £5 or less?

The bad news
Well, we may have to rethink our ideas of what Australian wines are, as things are about to change for the world’s most successful exporter of wines. For the past fifteen years or so we have relied on Australia to provide large quantities of bargain-priced, competently-made wines. We’ve looked to them for easy-to-like, ripe, alchoholic wines, without worrying too much about where exactly in Australia they come from. You know, Australia is about the same size as Western Europe and yet we’re perfectly happy to pick up a bottle of wine that says its origin is simply “South East Australia”. Have a look for that in the atlas – you won’t find it on any map of Australia, because the term has been coined to cover wines made from grapes from any or all of: New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria. We’re happy with that, yet most of us would turn our noses up at a wine labelled: “Produce of more than one EC country”.

Australia has managed to produce huge quantities of cheap wine because it has traditionally harvested huge crops of grapes produced in irrigated areas such as Riverina, Mudgee Irrigation Area and Riverland – don’t see those names on the label do you? These areas have been highly productive, producing a glut of cheap grapes to make into cheap wine. As the climate is hot, the grapes get very ripe very quickly, maybe too ripe – but, no worries, as the Aussies say, acidity levels, even tannin levels, can be adjusted in the winery. In the past 3-4 years, though, Australian grape harvests have been hit by the effect of severe drought – and when supply drops, prices increase. Australia’s big winemakers are going to struggle to keep their big name brands at current retail prices. Fosters, which owns Lindeman’s, has even been using Chilean wine to provide some of the Lindeman’s blend here in the UK since 2006.

The droughts which have caused the immediate supply problems look set to continue. In any case, it is becoming clear that an industry (and it is an industry at this scale) which relies on producing a crop by using precious river water for irrigation, thereby causing environmental damage to surrounding land, is far from sustainable. To cap it all, the wine trade has received warnings from the Treasury of above-inflation rises in duty on alcohol in the March budget. The days of bargain-basement Aussie wines look well and truly numbered.

So what’s the good news?
We are going to get used to seeing real Australian wine regions on our wine labels: weird and wonderful names like Gippsland, Tumbarumba and Geelong. Wine production will, in general, move out of the hotter central irrigation areas and out towards the coast, as well as up into the hills, where the cooler temperatures will produce wines with the right balance of acid, fruit and tannin – without over-reliance on irrigation and winemakers’ adjustments.

If you’re a fan of heavy-weight Barossa Valley or McLaren Vale Shiraz – don’t worry, these wines are not going to disappear. But the range of wine styles we will see from Australia will be broader: we’ll see more crisp, mineral Sauvignon Blancs, and elegant, scented Pinot Noirs. More choice and greater regionality, coupled with more sustainable winemaking have all got to be good news.

But the new Australians are just not going to be as cheap as they once were – and we are a nation of bargain hunters when it comes to wine. So maybe one effect is that we’ll find more shelf space devoted to other countries, while the Australian section shrinks. Wines from France and Spain, who can still produce wine relatively cheaply in some regions, may be the ultimate beneficiaries.

Is it time to pull the cork?

Do you look for wines sealed with a natural cork? Or do you go out of your way to buy screwcapped wines? How do you feel about synthetic (plastic) corks? A battle is being waged in the world of wine: a fight to find the perfect wine bottle closure.

Cork has, for centuries, been the closure of choice for wines, from the cheapest plonk to the grandest classed growths. But cork has a problem: cork taint. If a wine suffers from cork taint, you say the wine is corked, or corky. By the way, this has nothing to do with little bits of cork floating in your glass: just hoik those out and the wine will be fine.

Cork taint is something much more serious, caused by a substance known as TCA. TCA can get into natural corks during the process of turning the bark of the cork oak into stoppers that can be put into a bottle of wine – there is still debate about how exactly the TCA occurs. What we do know is that humans are very sensitive to TCA and can detect it in tiny quantities (just a few parts per million).

What does TCA do to a wine? First of all, there is no health implication from drinking corked wine – it’s all to do with the effect on the taste and smell of the wine. The effect on the wine depends on how corked it is: at one end of the spectrum the wine will smell damp and musty, as if a bit of rotten wood had been left floating in the bottle. The taste is unpleasant: musty and rotten tasting, with no fruit flavour. At the other end of the spectrum, low level taint can have a small but pernicious effect: the wine just does not have the fresh, fruity aromas and taste that it should have. This is what drives winemakers and wine merchants crazy about it: if you know what the wine should taste like, you may spot that the bottle you’ve got has low level cork taint and put it aside to return for a refund. If you don’t know it, then you might just think, “Didn’t think much of that wine, I won’t bother trying that again.” In other words, cork taint can damage the reputation of a wine and it is out of the control of the winemaker and retailer.

How often do corked bottles of wine come along? It’s hard to find definitive figures, but estimates vary between 1 in 20 bottles to 1 in 10. Wine makers, frustrated at the cork industry’s seeming inability to correct the problem, turned to alternatives: hence the arrival of synthetic corks and screwcaps.

Synthetic corks are made of plastic and are designed to mimic the look and effect of cork, but without the taint. The trouble is, they’re not very good at the job: plastics just can’t mould to the shaped of the bottle neck in the same way as cork, with the result that the seal is not as good as it should be. What this means for the wine is that, as air seeps into the bottle, the wine can start to oxidise: it won’t taste as fresh and lively as it should. Sound familiar? Plastic corks may not cause taint, but they are certainly not the perfect bottle stopper. However, research is continuing in an effort to make better synthetic corks and the risks of oxidation are lower if the wine is in bottle for a short time. It’s rare to find any wine over about £10 a bottle with one of these corks, which is a sign that winemakers are not (or not yet) convinced that these things are good quality. Personally, I don’t like synthetic corks: they’re hard to get out of the bottle, all but impossible to get back in again – and I hate the way you often don’t know it’s synthetic until you’ve taken the foil off the top of the bottle.

If you shop for wine in Tesco’s, you probably have a fair bit of experience of screwcapped wines. A couple of years or so ago, the supermarket decided to take a stand and insisted that many of its suppliers use screwcaps, if they wanted to remain suppliers. Presumably Tesco were fed up with the number of returned bottles from their customers (even though the wine suppliers pay for them I understand). As we buy so much of the wine we drink from supermarkets, and from Tesco more than any other supermarket, this has had a dramatic effect on the amount of screwcapped wine we drink. Tesco obviously got the mood of the customer right and we have embraced the screwcap wholeheartedly. Now it’s a struggle to find any New Zealand wine that is not in a screwcap bottle. Many Australian and some South American and South African wines have followed suit – some Bordeaux chateaux have even taken them up – for their white wines rather than their reds. Screwcaps no longer mean “cheap and nasty” when it comes to wine, although they are indeed cheaper to produce than the natural cork.

Screwcaps seem poised to take over the world of wine….well not quite. They may not cause cork taint, but there are reports of other problems, known as “reductive aromas” in the trade. Like cork taint, in its worst form it’s easy to spot (a bad egg, sulphurous smell), but in milder cases it just causes the wine to be, well, not as good as it should be. It looks like we are back where we started!

It seems that there is no single perfect solution to stoppering wine bottles, one that never causes problems. So should we just stick to cork? We shouldn’t forget that using natural cork helps to protect the unique ecosystem of the cork oak forests of southern Spain and Portugal, which are under threat. Also, the carbon footprint of natural cork is far smaller than either synthetic corks or screwcaps. The cork industry has also apparently cleaned up its act, literally, in an effort to eliminate TCA from their corks. Screwcaps and synthetic corks may have won a battle, but cork may yet win the war.