Screw This!

By Nils Kevin Puls

It’s an anniversary that still has some bottled up with anger. Johannes Hirsch, the acclaimed biodynamic Kamptal winemaker, is celebrating 20 years of screw caps. He rejoices in no longer having to discuss off-flavors and, above all, being certain his wines will show as they were made in his cellar. Yet open-mindedness on the matter of corks seems to be declining, even as acceptance for a diversity of wine styles has increased. That’s how Herbert Zillinger, a fellow vintner from the Weinviertel, sees things. For two decades, winemakers have been tweaking closure techniques and discussing and tasting the results among themselves, to unequivocal results.

Schraubverschluss — the German word for screw cap — is not just a tongue twister, it's a highly charged topic, even though numerous positive studies and articles on the subject have emerged on the topic over the past decade. For Hirsch wines, the move to screw caps was an essential step he does not regret for a second...  

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