Discussing Cork vs. Screwcaps during a Grab Bag Wine Tasting

Discussing Cork vs. Screwcaps during a Grab Bag Wine Tasting – Episode #654

April 7, 2009

Gary Vaynerchuk and Liza “The Wine Chick” Zimmerman taste 3 totally different wines and debate the relative merits of cork and screwcap enclosures.

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Comments on this episode(254) Leave a comment ›

“GV, I really find it hard to believe that screwtop wines flavors are g…” by eharms
“I enjoy the show, and Gary’s always very entertaining. I love the Pet…” by Ben
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Wines tasted in this episode:

2007 Mythic River Sauv BlancGreek White Wine
2006 Bleasdale Langhorne Crossing Shiraz/ CabernetAustralian Red Meritage
2007 Descendientes De Jose Palacios Bierzo PetalosBierzo

Links mentioned in today’s episode.

254 Responses

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April 8, 2009

*/^_^\*
QOTD: crab apples.
April 8, 2009

jigger
QOTD: No clue now that GV shamed me – my real life IQ is substantially lower than the one my internet aided persona carries around with him. This episode illustrated the effect guest and mood can have on an opinion about a wine or region. With someone else in the room saying yes / no / maybe it is, obviously, a more dynamic process where you are taken in directions with a wine you might not have gone on your own. Wine becomes so much more when its shared. Great show. Peace.
April 8, 2009

BurroBoy
excellent banter…”the screwcap kingdom where they will give you candy and money”…brilliant.

QOTD: hey leave some fruit for the elephants
April 8, 2009

Scott EJ
Nice, lively debate and on-point opinions. Although, being a traditionalist who hasn’t been affected by a corked wine (yet), it’ll take more than talk to get me to change my romantic ways. It’s all part of the experience for me. Much like decanting, smelling, whirling, shloshing the wine around in my mouth, being patient with my bottles, pairing, etc, etc. I normally won’t even look at a screw cap bottle to purchase. It just lessens the experience.
April 8, 2009

Chalz
When Liza started to describe her palate I was rolling my eyes but so glad to see her stand her ground and play Devils advocate. Not really, she really believes her points and in most case I do too. Funny alliance?

GV: How about a show from the Cork People’s place and you call them out? Love to see how they and you handle it!!

QOTD: grapes?? I don’t know
April 8, 2009

jaredlevy
Good show Gary. I think this show sums up what you’ve been preaching since episode #1: trust your own palate. It’s very obvious that you and Liza had very different palates and tastes and are both considered “experts” on wine. This is why us consumers can not simply go by the ratings of one judge or critic. Try different things, trust your palate and enjoy what YOU like.

Good show.
April 8, 2009

Jayhitek
Good episode. Very good guest. Showed her strong and weak sides.. Gave her opinions. You guys had a good chemistry going. Bring her back for another show.
And for the whole corked thing.. I think I have only experienced 2 corked bottles in my life. And one glass at a bar.
If you look at all the bottles Gary has reviewed (and that has to be close to 2000 bottles), he’s only had one corked review on the show. And he appeared pissed when he realized it.
QOTD: Too lazy to google it.. Peanuts?
April 8, 2009

Sean
QOTD STRIKE…feeling lazy this morning.
April 8, 2009

ex-lurkdawg
I really enjoyed this guest and this episode. I do, however, disagree with Liza about cork vs screwcap. Stelvin has more than one option for the film in the cap, some of which allow for some air exchange in a similar fashion to cork. I know these haven’t been tested too much yet, but I think they hold promise and so does a respected producer in Burgundy who’s done some pretty serious testing. I think if people stop using the basic film that allows virtually no airflow, even with wines that will be consumed young, we might stop hearing about this reductive problem. Thanks, Chris, Liza, and Gary!
April 8, 2009

Zach
Sorry for the typos…..darn Blackberry keyboard.
April 8, 2009

Zach
Good show and good debate. I was waiting for it to turn into the Dan Akroyd/ Jane Curtain “Point/Counter Point” (before your time Gary).

I respect her opionions and knowledge.I can certaily appreciate that she stood by her opinions and wasn’t easily swayed. However, I felt Liza came across as a stereotypical wine know-it-all. This is the reason many are afraid of wines and does’t encourage people to explore more wines.

Gary, stop iterrupting guests.
April 8, 2009

MaRc
Gary… was the video edited? Around the 26th minute when the debate on cark taint got hot it just changed to TCA abrubtly. Wonder what happened back there…

QOTD: no idea what it is but after reading from the comments, yeah heard of amarula cream liquer!

By the way, great show and thumbs up to the wine chick! Great synergy and discussion on a hot debatable topic and really loved both your comments on screw caps vs corks.
April 8, 2009

torquey
Hi Gary,

I really enjoyed this episode and thought your guest was an excellent addition to the show. I’m happy to hear the subject of TCA come up. I’m drawn to your ballpark estimate of one in one thousand tainted wines, however I think to even frame the issue in those terms is a bit of an oversimplification. It seems likely that TCA has been prominent in particular times and somewhat particular wines. My suspicion is that those touting the one in one case metric had a painful impression formed at a time when cork quality was low among wines they encountered. Although TCA might be much less of an issue in current times, they are perhaps left smarting from unpleasant experiences. One specific factor that exacerbated the TCA problem was cork bleaching; we can hope that’s now a lesson learned among cork producers and wineries.

I would suggest anyone interested in learning more about TCA investigate the George Taber book, _To Cork or Not to Cork_ as well as Grape Radio episode 182 on which Taber was a guest.

Cheers,
Torquey Marula
April 8, 2009

SoCal mike
Enough with the yakity yak already and get back to basics tasting wine. There’s more talk and promotion in each show with less wine. This lady, the “Wine Chick”was so full of it I turned you both off.
April 8, 2009

Chris Short
Gary,

You need to have some Michigan cherries. 70% of the worlds tart cherries (or something like that) come from MI. Get to the cherry festival in Traverse City. Lots of wine up there too in the Leelenau Peninsula (some of it is drinkable).
April 8, 2009

J Crazy
This was a really interesting/awesome episode. It kind of illustrates the “which came first” riddle. Liza clearly has preconceived notions (as we all do) but she’s also tasted 1000s of times more wines than most of us do. So it begs the question: Are her preconceived notions born from her tastings or have those biases been around forever and influence the way she writes about and reviews wines?

Whatever the answer is I think it’s fascinating to understand that there isn’t a single wine writer out there who doesn’t have biases. So, I’m super awesomely glad she’s not all about points because at the end of the day what the hell does a 90 from RP mean? It just means that among his biases and the state of his palate that day and all the other millions of factors that go into how we perceive taste that at that time he found he liked that wine at a 90 pts for him. Gary, you always talk about this but today I think we all could clearly see how “normal” wine writers are. The only difference is how much they taste.
April 8, 2009

jack
I would love to see some high end wines with Screw caps…like a taste off of the Plumpjack cabs Cork v Screw!
April 8, 2009

BobbyTiger
Lots of good information from The Wine Chick. I do appreciate her looking for, and evaluating wines with good price points.
Gary. At times I felt I was watching cable news. You know……..
when the moderator asks a guest a question, and then starts talking again when the guest is in the middle of their response?
But hey, who am I?
Liza and you both had fun, shared a lot of information, and it was fun to watch.
QOTD- I dunno.
April 8, 2009

Helge Hagener
QOTD was easy: Marula. AND: without google!! It’s because I have family in Cape Town and they have a great liqour in South Africa called “Amarula”, which is made from Marula and tasts like a fruity Bailey’s!
April 8, 2009

RedRoss
Love it when you have guests. Love it more when you have guests that don’t fully understand what the Thunder Show is all about. Love it even more when those guest are rocking the wristband..
April 8, 2009

Richie
Great episode again. Really interesting topic.
QOTD: I have absolutely no idea and don’t want to google it because I would rather read the answer right here coming from nice people.
April 8, 2009

Andrew D
Cheers guys great show

Got to love Portugese wine …

I can’t believe you guys haven’t seen the evidence of screw-tops – what about the Pewesey Vale Reislings from the 1970s that were sealed under both cork and stelvin. Anyone in the wine media who’s tried this wines argues in favour of the stelvin sealed wines. I buy a lot of wine for long term cellaring and wine that’s sealed with a cork I would almost never buy though these are Australian wines I’m talking about and Australians are a little more enlightened about these things…

QOTD: fruit of the murula tree, enjoyed by elephants and enjoyed by us as Amarula cream…

Cheers
Andrew
April 8, 2009

Tayabunny
Really Gary, – poopy? Yeah, the bacon-y thing was a dealbreaker for me… but then the poopiness…!!! oh hell no BAHAHAHAHA Glad to have you telling it like it is tho, honestly. I hope to avoid the poopy wines best I can.

- Taylor
April 8, 2009

Pancismo
Marula fruit, dumb question! it taste like scotch cream buzz.
April 8, 2009

castello
a good link for cork vs other closures
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=61782626387765280