Wine: Paul's (pnodrog's) method of removing a screw cap

[Mike Buckley]

Paul (pnodrog) gave me the idea for the concept of this photo when he cracked a great joke about my earlier photo. Thank you, Paul!

I chose a Kim Crawford wine (to be precise, their Sauvignon Blanc) mostly because that winery and so many other New Zealand wineries were among the earliest adopters worldwide of screw cap closures for wine bottles. I also chose it because of the simplicity of the top of the screw cap that makes the winery's name so clearly evident. Having said that, the folks at Kim Crawford no doubt would heartily object to the need of a pipe wrench to open their wine bottles.

Setup
The background is green presentation paper (chosen because the closure and foil are also green). A small continuous-light lamp is above and to the front left of the scene. A white reflector on the right side adds the reflection to that side of the bottle, which adds a little interest and helps define the shape of the bottle.

[rpcrowe]

Neat image!

It seems that a screw top would be easier to use - both in opening and in resealing. Except for asthetics is there any great advantage to using corks for wine bottles?

[pnodrog]

Hey - you can't use my idea on a NZ wine. That's brutality.....

Well done but I think a little more hint of the bottle in the shadow would make it a bit more interesting.

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, Richard!

There is no advantage whatsoever to using corks for wine bottles other than that the end that is inside the bottle has the aroma of the wine, whereas a screw cap doesn't. Instead, there are lots of disadvantages: They sometimes crumble when removing them the first time. When that happens, it becomes difficult to remove the cork and the likelihood that small bits of cork will fall into the wine is very high. The synthetic corks are often so tight and rigid that they're difficult to remove. It's difficult to reseal a bottle using any type of cork. A cork reinserted into the bottle leaks if you lay the bottle on its side, especially if it is removed using a corkscrew. (Though I've had some screw caps leak, they didn't leak as much and far fewer of them leaked at all.) Having to remove cork closures means having to keep at least one device available to make that happen. A lot of hotel rooms and rented vacation apartments don't provide equipment that removes a cork. A cork closure is almost always enclosed within foil or plastic that usually has to be removed to get to the cork. (I recently bought my first bottles of wine that had cork closures with no foil or plastic covering.)

[NorthernFocus]

That's awesome, Mike. Great idea and well executed.

We visited NZ in 2008 and returned home with a taste for their Sauv Blanc. After testing a few brands that were available locally I really liked Monkey Bay. It had screw top bottles as is typical of NZ. But after I'd been drinking it for a couple of years they switched to natural cork stoppers, presumably due to consumer demand in the USA. Unfortunately they apparently couldn't figure out exactly how to size the corks because they would spin when you tried to use a typical corkscrew on them. They never did get it right and after a couple of years thankfully returned to their senses and went back to using screw tops.

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks again, Paul!

a little more hint of the bottle in the shadow would make it a bit more interesting.

I also thought that until I made the photo. I didn't like it because that increased definition in the lower area of the scene drew my eye away from the far more important upper area. So, I decided to eliminate all separation from the background of both the bottle and the pipe wrench in the darkest areas of the background.

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks for the nod and the story about the Monkey Bay closures, Dan. I don't remember ever being aware of their temporary abandonment of screw caps. My wife and I enjoyed a bottle of Monkey Bay Sauvignon Blanc the first time while eating outside in July 2008. We enjoyed it so much that I made a snapshot of it (not good enough to share here).

[Shadowman]

Hey if it works , nicely composed.

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, John!

Hey if it works

I wouldn't know and I'm not about to find out.

[Rita]

Ha Ha, that's a great fun shot.

[Wavelength]

Very nice; humorous too...

[rpcrowe]

I guess that the cork is just an idea that has passed it's time but, is still lingering around. I have heard some disparaging things about screw cap wine, lumping them all into an el-cheapo category.

BTW: My wife never finishes a bottle of wine and usually doesn't even finish a bottle of beer. These stoppers are quite good and very cheap in cost...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/pack-of-10-a....c100505.m3226

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to Rita and Nandakumar!

I guess that the cork is just an idea that has passed it's time but, is still lingering around.

That's not how I would characterize it, as almost all wine bottles worldwide have cork closures. Even so, I read that nearly all wines from New Zealand have screw caps, which comes as no surprise considering that they were one of the earliest adopters. The last wineries to widely embrace screw cap closures will surely be located in the Old World areas of winemaking (mostly Europe) where tradition in the eye of the consumer is especially difficult to change. However, I was shocked to see a screw cap closure on a wine from Bordeaux, France. I've always said that the first growth grand crus from Bordeaux (there are only five of them) will probably be the very last to use screw caps because their history is so heavily steeped in tradition.

I have heard some disparaging things about screw cap wine, lumping them all into an el-cheapo category.

Anyone who tells you that is simply misinformed. One of my favorite Pinot Noirs costs $20 and the same winery makes a high-end Pinot Noir I've never drunk that costs $40. Many wines with screw caps are in the $20 price range.

[pnodrog]

Corks to screw caps is bit like film to digital. Resistance at first but in the end the overwhelming advantages win out.

Why are people so nervous about change?

[Mike Buckley]

I kid you not: I just now tried to open this exact bottle of wine and it was simply impossible to do without using another tool! I seriously considered using the pipe wrench to remove it purely as a joke but I was concerned that the soft metal of the screw cap, which I plan to feature in my next photo, would become marred. Instead, I used a knife to cut the perforations between the foil and screw cap; they had not been perforated enough during manufacturing. Once that was done, it was easy to remove the screw cap.