I’d like to bring your attention to two brief and entirely unrelated items. Firstly, yesterday I tasted two bottles of the same 2001 Australian pinot noir bottled in the same batch with screwtop caps. They were very different, but the same. One was clearly very much more advanced than the other. It’s difficult to imagine how this might occur, but a possible explanation is that the machine responsible for filling the bottles in the bottling process actually short-filled one bottle, leaving a substantially greater ‘headspace’ inside which could have contained oxygen. If correct, this should sent out a message of not inconsiderable concern to makers using this means of sealing their wine, as well as to customers. Winemakers need to ensure a consistently very high level of fill if using screwcaps if this problem is to be avoided. As we’ve known all along, the concept of the screwcap can easily be undone if it is not applied to the bottle in very precisely controlled circumstances. Customers can check levels of screwcapped wines they might be about to buy by turning them upside down and holding at a 45-degree angle. Any major difference in level should become apparent without difficulty. I very much doubt we’ve heard the last of this one. Today the chief executive of the Winemakers Federation of Australia, Ian Sutton, announced he is calling it quits at the end of the year. His replacement will be Stephen Strachan, who at 37 years of age is the WFA’s present Policy Director. In my opinion the biggest challenge facing Strachan in his new role will be to move the wine industry towards a more equitable and rational taxation regime, which will require the building of new and positive links with both sides of Federal politics.
