Interesting cork/screwtop combination

[Dale B.]

We had our adult children up for a delayed Christmas dinner and port is always figured up in the dinner equation. We served a port/non-port, a Buller's 1980 calliope vintage port, from Rutherglen, Victoria, Australia. It was a gift to me and my wife when we were visiting with friends last October. They have a magnificent wine cellar that is actually an old bank vault. Here's the story: just for giggles and grins, we were going to drink this one first, assuming that it might be off and then get into some Fairfield's and some Warre's. The Buller's had a screw top (Stelven?). When we removed the screw top, there was, indeed, also a cork underneath. Moreover, the cork had failed, as there was about 1/4 inch of port resting on top of it. The point is, is that apparently this dual protection saved the day. This was one of the most wonderful ports we have ever had the pleasure to taste. Even though I know this is not considered a true "port," it was a very enjoyable wine and truly overshadowded the Warre's '94 which we opened next.

I was wondering if anyone had some thoughts on this dual corkage system; it was the first time we had seen anything like it. Apparently it worked, because the wine absolutely intact.
Regards,
Dale and Laurie

[Eric Menchen]

I have had a few beers double sealed with a cork and then a bottle cap, but never a wine. In the beer case I think the cap is to keep the cork in, as a substitute for a wire cage you would find covering a sparkling wine cork. For a wine, I would think the screw cap would prevent the desirable development of a long lived wine, but in your case the outcome was better than the alternative.

[Paul Fountain]

I can't say I've ever seen that before. Most of the fortifieds from that region are under stelvin these days although there are a few that still use cork for the vp style wines. Stelvin didn't really increase in popularity until the mid to late 90s so when the 1980 was bottled it would have been relatively unproven at the time. I'd imagine that the stelvin would allow for much slower ageing, regardless of the cork and I'm not sure thats what I want. It doesn't look like they make a vp style any more either.

[Andy Velebil]

Ditto, can't say I've ever seen a double cork/screwcap system on the same bottle at one time.