Aged wines under screwcap – it works 30 June 2006

Old yes, but no taint, says Melvyn Minnaar announcing the results of some kitchen trials

It was at the Trophy Wine Show lunch (where he collected some deserved accolades) that Carel Nel of Boplaas told about his 1985 ‘port’ that is looking just great, drinking so well, after being sealed so many years ago with what was then a rather primitive and unfashionable thing – a screwcap.

The thought stuck and, recalling what Paul Pontallier said on his last visit – that they have been experimenting at Château Margaux with that kind of closure on their cellared red treasures for some years – the time was right, the past weekend, to open another ‘port’ which had been under screwcap for some years. And to add to the experiment – and this is pretty quirky – a dinkie of old Nederburg Noble Late Harvest with a similar seal offered itself to exposure.

One of the pro-cork lobby’s arguments – repeated by many local procrastinating producers – is that ‘screwcaps haven’t proven itself over substantial aging periods’. The argument is so often thrown in as a scare-mongering deflection technique (ignoring the fact that most contemporary wine acquired is drunk immediately, anyway) that no further questions about research (such as done by the New Zealand screwcap pioneers) are asked.  

Well, as Nel stated, as Pontallier hinted, and as was simply and domestically proven this past weekend, there are no obvious negatives about Cape wine ageing under that little metal shutter. In two suburban kitchen experiments, both a fortified and a botrytic sweet held up quite smartly, thank you.

Sweet, and alive

The Nederburg NLH 1982 was a small 250-ml bottle – one of those once-off oddities released by the then SFW when Günter Brözel’s local sweet wine invention (the famous one known as Edelkeur) was getting to be the talk of social dinner tables. It was sealed by a simple screwcap – in the same fashion as big wineries were turning out dinkies as marketing implements for easier consumption.

For all its fame and glory, NLH wines from that stable and elsewhere in the Cape, have a tendency to turn dark relatively quickly. But even as such old Nederburg sweeties become more cola-coloured, they do sometimes stay the trek into maturity.

Our 1982 dinkie was past its prime, no doubt. But it was still drinkable and kind-of-fun, just old.

The same applied to the other sweet darkie lured out for the cold winter evening: Inus Muller’s 1990 De Helderberg Koöperative Wijnmakerij Beperkt Port (sic!) was an aged, big number. But its cranky shoulders (of mostly tinta barocca) were still holding up some of the cinsaut fruit in a coherent spirited frame. At the time praised for being made in a drier style, it did the trick for the cold night. It had safely stayed its time under a simple black commercial screwcap.

Perhaps it is overstating the pro-screwcap argument in practical terms by just mentioning in passing that another old Nederburg sweetie, as well as a very young ‘port’ went down the kitchen drain in the past weeks – due to cork taint.

After note: A bottle Boplaas Port 1985 arrived after the above samplings, and the black commercial screw top just called to be unzipped for the contents to be inspected. Needless to report that the old wine is in good nick – old, together and wintry-charming, and not corked!