CALIFORNIA (Neda Iranpour)--– All wine isn’t created equal, and neither are all wine toppers. This is what a new UC Davis study wants to prove.
Most people assume corks are better than synthetic, and both are better than a screw top; but others argue that’s not true.
It’s a taste test to please the pallets of all the winos out there.
“We bottled so many different bottles,” said Andrew Waterhouse, UC Davis wine expert.
Six hundred bottles of wine on the wall, 200 with each cork, all to learn if the cap will cost you in flavor.
“There was one my friends and I tried to open with a corkscrew without realizing it was a screw top,” said wine lover Sneha Patel.
Well, there’s always that bit of confusion, and traditionally screw tops were known to be cheaper.
“They always have that idea, that it’s not as good. So I always try to tell them ‘no this is great wine,’ ” said Amber Edstrom, 58 Degrees and Holding.
The managers at 58 degrees and holding have no preference on either pours.
“Screw tops now are on some of the best wines,” said wine lover Mark Herzig.
And, there’s always the ease of twist and turn.
“When I’m bartending and you need to be quick, you definitely love the screw top,” said Edstrom.
But, this study is more about which allows more oxygen inside.
For the next year, an undergrad student will check the color of all 600 bottles of white wine every three months. The darker the color, the more oxygen was let in.
This study involves not just UC Davis’ world renowned viticulture school, but also engineering and medical schools. In fact, they’ve used a CT scan to x-ray every single cork.
“We have three dimensional view of every single closure that went into the study,” said Waterhouse.
It’s a thorough test that may change the way we toast.
