The aluminium advantage for today's wine

Hold. Swirl. Smell. Sip.

Wine has a profound presence in almost all cultures across the world. Traditionally, wine bottles have been sealed with cork since the 17th century. However, a little bit of aluminium has found its way in preserving your favorite bottle of wine by becoming an alternative method of closure.

As the beverage traveled far beyond its birthplace, the wine community grew too. From wine tasting sessions to exhibitions, everyplace that one could go, one would hear a debate brewing – ‘Whether traditional corks or screw caps produce a better bottle of wine’ - a controversial one that has divided the wine community. Some people feel that the age-old method of using cork is the genuine way to increase the character of the beverage while others are of the opinion that screw caps, majorly made out of aluminium, are the best way of preservation.

Screw caps have been around since the late 1950’s but they were originally intended for use with economy (cheap) wines. During the early 2000, Australia and particularly New Zealand started to use them extensively for all kinds of wines including the costly ones too. According to Dave McIntyre, a wine writer in The Washington Post, a lot of winemakers these days “prefer screw caps for white wines and reds meant to be drunk young,” because of its ability to retain the wine’s crispness and preservation over time. In fact, according to Andrew Waterhouse, a wine chemist at UC Davis, “In New Zealand corks are nearly unheard of, and in Australia, screw-caps dominate the market.”

Let’s take a look at the scenario of the wine sealing industry. Earlier, cork was the preferred choice of sealing as it resisted moisture and rotting in addition to being leak-proof. But cork’s graceful utility took a bad hit as the issue of ‘cork taint’ came to fore. It leaves a moldy, musty, off-putting smell inside a bottle. It is commonly associated with spoilt wine. In a 2013 study, it was found that ‘Cork taint’ comes from a natural fungus which infects the wine through TCA, or 2,4,6-trichloroanisole, a compound that lends an off-putting aroma. Screw caps help winemakers avoid cork taint, which can wreck as many as seven bottles of wine out of a hundred.

So, why did the aluminium screw-cap do well over corks?

A screw-cap provides better insulation to the wine from oxygen than cork.
It includes the elimination of the nasty smell that TCA gives out from ‘cork taint’.
Screw-capped wines contributed more consistency in flavor and the wine ages more slowly than in bottles closed with cork, which aged not only more rapidly but more variously too.
The aluminium caps gave a good cost benefit compared to the corks.

In 2001, started the Screw Cap Initiative in New Zealand where the top winemakers in the country were sealing their bottles with aluminium caps. It garnered a huge favor in Australia too where it is gaining momentum rapidly. Aluminium caps are 100% recyclable, and reduces the weight of the bottles, helping in become more ecological for transport. In 2105, Washington State University's Viticulture and Enology scientists said that they would prefer wine bottles’ closure to be made of aluminium screw-caps rather than corks any day.

Long Live the screwcap - Burying the cork for good are winemakers, John Forrest, John Stichbury, John Belsham and Ross Lawson. The Priest conducting the service is Gary Lacroix, from the Lonely Planet film crew.

10 years ago, about 90% of all wine bottles produced in the world were sealed with natural cork. Today, thanks to aluminium, only 70% of all bottles produced globally are corked. More and more winemakers are shifting their bottle closures to aluminium caps so that it reduces their risk of product spoilage and ensure that their name on a wine bottle stands the test of time as well as their rich heritage.

Sources:

Comments

Aluminium in guitars – It's all music to our ears

Think of a guitar and the classic wooden version comes to mind. There are hundreds of types and they come in all shapes and sizes. Some passionate players even go for custom made guitars just to suit their movements and taste. The simple guitar is still evolving with newer uses of the instruments in concerts and other forms of music. The use of wood in the body and the neck of a guitar is not going to cease in a long time. However, the use of other selected materials by modern guitar manufacturers has significantly improved the sound quality and handling of the guitars. “Manufacturers were making custom guitars from solid billeted aluminum. I was still in graduate school and couldn’t afford such instruments. So I decided to make a competitively priced guitar. Instead of wood or plastic, I opted to use 0.080-in. aircraft-grade aluminum sheet metal because of its quality and durability,” says the then-future CEO of Normandy Guitars. Aluminium Guitar The use of Alumin

Aluminium extrusions - The ultimate value addition of Aluminium downstream

From simple paper clips to complex pieces used in advanced technology, aluminium extrusions are created in various shapes and sizes for value added end use utilizations. The computer you are using right now contains at least one aluminium profile in the form of a heat sink. This takes advantage of aluminium’s excellent thermal conductivity, unique anodising capability and freedom of design to keep your computer’s processor cool. Different cross sections of extrusions Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross-sectional profile. A special tool called a ‘die’ is used to create these extrusions by cutting or shaping the material with the help of a press. These dies are customized to create the wanted design. The process involves the pressing of a pre-heated solid cylinder of aluminium (billet) which is forced through the die opening. The billets are heated to a temperature range of 350 – 500 degrees Celsius. Aluminium does not glow when heated ye

The choice is clear - Aluminium body for high end smartphones

A lot of phone companies are trying to build slim and sturdy phones for the ever growing market of steroid enhanced hardware capabilities. With phone manufacturers stuffing more RAM and precision cameras in the modern phones, the weight and robustness of the frames becomes all the more important. Today, some manufactures prefer a fiber body to reduce the overall weight in comparison to metal bodies. However, there’s something which still draws a larger advocacy of using aluminium bodies instead of a plastic or fiber. In 2007, Apple CEO Steve Jobs penned an open letter highlighting changes to the company's environmental policy in hopes of achieving "a greener Apple." In the letter, Jobs specifically noted the Mac maker's adoption of aircraft-grade aluminum in order to improve recycling uptake. Apart from the cost reduction implications, Apple is strongly in favor of aluminium usage in all its products for improving its year on year recycling capabilities with

Aluminium vs. Steel - (1) The changing tides in the automotive sector

To Steel or not to Steel… That is the question. To Aluminium… This might be the answer. The automobile industry is the one constantly shifting tides in technology and design to achieve perfection and quality. Everything is done with precision to maximise the output from the machines with as few resources as possible. After all, this is necessary as natural resources are limited and so are the resources which people can spare for an economical, ergonomic and environment-friendly vehicle of personal transportation. Moreover, safety is an important issue that the engineers keep at priority as people’s lives are at stake. Aluminium body is the preferred material in sports cars With car manufacturers around the world trying to pack in more punch with their offerings, the fight for better fuel efficiency and safety of the automobiles has intensified. With cutting edge designing and engineering capabilities, car manufacturers have carefully selected the materials and technology to

Did we just chance upon a source for clean fuel powered by water & aluminium?

Source: Getty A team of researchers at the US Army Research Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Ground Maryland made a chance discovery when they poured water on a new aluminium alloy they were testing. It began to give off hydrogen immediately! Exciting enough? Well, let us rewind this recent ground-breaking discovery and allow it to sink in slowly as you read on. Hydrogen stands at number one on the periodic table; it is the most abundant element in the Universe. It is found in the sun and most of the stars and the planet Jupiter is composed mostly of hydrogen. On Earth, Hydrogen is prevalent in the form of plenteously available chemical compounds such as hydrocarbons and water. Some see hydrogen gas as the clean fuel of the future – generated from water and returning to water when it is oxidised . Hydrogen-powered fuel cells are increasingly being seen as ‘pollution-free’ sources of energy and are now being used in some buses and cars. Although clean and

Aluminium - Enriching A Billion Lives

Search This Blog