David,
since my cellar is 95% horizontal, I do lay down glass stoppered bottles. As to the sealing performance/staying power of glass stoppered bottles, all I can do is to refer to Rupert Summerer of Langenlois who started 100% glass stoppers with vintage 2003 (iirc) who, until now, reports no problems whatsoever. I do have experienced a 2007 Tement Gewürztraminer Wielitsch, however, — can't say whether it was a cask sample or not — where the first bottle had distinct signs of oxidation, while the second was perfect.
Mark,
I can only tell from what I see over here. Right now, I have in front of me two 2007 riesling bottlings from Egmont Höfinger in Gobelsburg (Kamptal), a screw-capped "Gobelsburger Hofstatt" (12%) and a plastic stoppered "Zöbinger Heiligenstein 'E'" (12.5%). Turning the bottles upside down, a look at the air bubbles confirms what I have said: the bubble in the screw-capped bottle is at least five times as large as in the stoppered one. The classic bottles states "0.75 l 70 mm", the screw-capped "0.75 l 76.5", the latter meaning an air space of 15 ml at correct fill level, an amount one would ththormally never see in a cork finished bottle.
Incidentally, I just finished a screw-capped bottle of Beringer Syrah Rosé (the bottle saying nothing except "750 ML), but I do not remember the fill level.
So, I guess, we will have to agree to disagree on this point; or, in other words, US wines under cork tend to have much more airspace than many top European.
Oliver,
all I can talk about is Austria: over here nobody sparges with nitrogen or CO2 — maybe that's the reason why i have never encountered reduction scents/flavours in our wines ...
?