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Sonoma-Cutrer Lays Down A Quality Marker

edited by Madelyn Miller, the TravelLady

After 25 years, Sonoma-Cutrer winemaker Terry Adams finally feels like he’s getting the hang of crafting the Russian River Ranches Chardonnay cuvée and lots of people seem to agree: the wine has been selected in an annual poll of top US restaurants as America’s favorite Chardonnay for 17 of the past 19 years.

Iconic Russian River Ranches Chardonnay Comes To Nevada & Texas Restaurants In Stelvin® Screwcap

So it was easy for Adams to decide something once thought revolutionary, but now becoming more common among top-tier wines. In Nevada, including food and wine Mecca Las Vegas, and in Texas, one of the winery’s most successful markets, Sonoma-Cutrer’s RRR will now come to tables in a bottle closed with Stelvin® screwcap instead of the familiar cork.

A Simple Solution

“Nothing contributes more to a negative experience in fine dining than a corked bottle of wine,” said John Hudson, Brand Director for Sonoma-Cutrer. “We can do something about that, and we have.”

Screwcap closures help eliminate a problem called “cork taint” sometimes evident as a musty, disagreeable odor when a wine bottle is opened. Industry estimates vary, with some saying as much as five percent of all wine suffers from such taint, but accepting even a small percentage of wine as flawed strikes winemaker Adams as a bit absurd. “We have the solution, and wine drinkers are both adventuresome and inquisitive by nature, so the change will be easy,” he predicts.

No Big Difference

Brand Director Hudson says great care has been taken to assure that in the end, nothing much about the Sonoma-Cutrer experience will be different. The screwcap package looks much the same as the cork-finish, and only a close-up and careful examination of the bottle would even note the difference. Hudson says sophisticated Sonoma-Cutrer wine drinkers are likely to applaud the change, and both Nevada and Texas are well established as trend-setting wine destinations, he added.

Hudson also believes the beverage trade is already on board.

Best by the Glass

“There’s an obvious advantage beyond quality assurance,” he said. Busy by-the-glass programs will welcome the efficiency of a screwcap, and since many higher-end and New World ultra-premium wines are already bottled in screwcap, servers have adapted to the ritual of presenting diners with the bottle, focusing not just on ritual but on setting the stage for wine as part of the entire dining experience.

And getting the experience right is what matters to Adams.

“It’s simple, really,” he says. “I want people to enjoy the wine as I made it, and as I hoped they would be able to enjoy it when it left the winery. It’s no different than any quality decision we make,” said Adams. “We always choose on the side of our consumers.”

Not really a new Idea

Winemaker Adams actually began considering screwcaps as early as 1983, when curiosity led the winery to bottle wine using a variety of alternative closures. The trials continued over many years, and were sometimes forgotten. In one such episode, Adams took some overlooked wine, bottled in screwcap five years earlier home, and found it not just to his liking, but fresh and vibrant as the day it was bottled.

Further conversations with famed producers in Burgundy in the late 1990’s led to a decision to bottle in screwcaps Sonoma-Cutrer’s most sought after wine, the five barrels produced each year and offered as the limited release Founder’s Reserve, starting with the 1999 vintage.

“Capturing the sense of place is the most important and most romantic of all aspects of winemaking” explained Adams. “A screwcap helps me share my very best wine,” he said. “It’s like capturing a little bit of Sonoma County in every bottle.”

Sonoma-Cutrer Russian River Ranches is found exclusively in restaurants. The winery’s offerings also include the Sonoma Coast Chardonnay, available at retail, and limited release vineyard designates Les Pierres, The Cutrer and special releases Founder’s Reserve and Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir. For more information, visit Sonoma-Cutrer on the web at www.sonomacutrer.com. Sonoma-Cutrer is represented in Nevada by DeLuca Liquor & Wine, Ltd., and in Texas by the Republic National Distributing Company.

Madelyn Miller is a travel and food writer. Read her stories on www.travellady.com, www.cocktailatlas.com, www.chocolateatlas.com, www.carladynews.com, www.teaAtlas.com, www.coffeeatlas.com