Wine Cork vs. Screw Cap Debate

The debate continues about whether or not winemakers should introduce screw caps as a means to bottle their wines.

The reason there's a shift away from cork is due to the presence of cork taint, typically classified as an odor that smells like a moldy newspaper, a wet dog or a damp basement. Wine experts agree that cork taint affects one of every 10 bottles in varying degrees.

New Zealand appears to be taking the lead with using screw caps, especially with its Sauvignon Blancs.

Here's the problem: Unscrewing the cap from a bottle of wine affects the experience.

While screw caps are easily the most reliable sealer, they mess with tradition and atmosphere. And atmosphere is everything with wine.

We've ordered New Zealand Suvignon Blancs in restaurants and the waiters are almost apologetic when they open the wine.

We recently had a friend over (her husband, Steve Levitt, co-wrote "Freakonomics") and I noticed the strange look she gave me when I turned the screw cap of a very good South African Sauvignon Blanc.

A few years ago, I bought a few bottles of a pricey Sonoma Pinot Noir to open during the holidays and got quizzical looks when I poured the wine after a quick twist.

Opening a bottle of wine is a festive occasion, one reserved for a good meal or to set the tone for conversation with family and friends.

Think about how you rate a restaurant. You base your dining experience on the food, the service and the atmosphere. If the food and service are both great but the atmosphere is generic or stale, you may not go back.

And that's precisely the problem with screw-cap wines.

There's no atmosphere.

Comments

[KarenW]

I have had corked wine. It tastes like fungus. Mainly happens to chradonnay.

[Matt S]

No atmosphere, true. But I'd rather have no atmosphere than a tainted wine.

The benfits of screw-tops are plentiful: less care needs to be taken with storing the wine, the screw-top on an old bottle won't crumble when you try to open it and many more, let alone the ecological benefits.

[DK]

I wouldn't count "ecological benefits" as an assest of screw tops. Cork is a renewable resource, while screw tops are made from plastic.

[Christian Bieck]

Drinking wine is not a rational experience, but an emotional and sensory one - not only smell and taste, but the others too. (Even feel - good glas is important!) The rational benefits of screw-tops are fairly unimportant if it detracts from the sensory experience, which IMO it does...
That does not mean you need natural cork - just a type that needs the same sort of ceremony for opening - many good french wines now use synthetic cork, which does not lessen the sensory experience as much (it does not keep the smell, so no sniffing the cork after opening... :-( )

[Nick]

DK said:
'I wouldn't count "ecological benefits" as an assest of screw tops. Cork is a renewable resource, while screw tops are made from plastic.'

So it's environmentally friendly to ship cork the 10,000 miles from the Mediterranean where it grows to Australia.

How many bottles of wine use real cork anyway? I thought they mostly used those fake plastic corks now (at least at the cheap end of the market).

[lbm]

Just open it in the kitchen!

[Poppy]

We wouldn't know better about "atmosphere" if wine bottles had always had screw caps. Then again, that would mean we hadn't been enjoying wine very long.

[phil]

HAVE YOU SEEN THE SCREW TOPS WITH THE GLASS-LIKE CORKS INSIDE? AS A WINE PROFESSIONAL AND SOMMELIER FOR OVER 20 YEARS THESE ARE MY PERSONAL FAVORITE. WHEN SCREWTOPS 1ST ARRIVED I WAS SKEPTICAL OF QUALITY AND CLASS OF WINE TO EMBBRACE THEM. FORTUNATELY THE WINE INDUSTRY IS FULL OF NON-CONFORMISTS WILLING TO BREAK WITH TRADITION FOR BETTER PRODUCT PERIOD. THE TRUTH IS I HAVE OPENED TOO MANY CORKED WINES, INCLUDING INCREDIBLE VINTAGES OF(e.g. LAFITE, VEGA S., AND ROMANEE ST. VIVANT), WHAT A SHAME! I LOVE CORKS AND THE TRADITION AND CHALLENGE THEY OFFER. EGO ASIDE, PRESERVING AND IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF THE WINE IS TRULY WHAT IS IMPORTANT. THE CORK INDUSTRY IS JUST THAT, DO YOU REALLY THINK SERIOUS COLLECTORS AND WINERIES WOULD BE PAYING $$$$$ TO GO SCREWTOP ON DEEP VINTAGE SELECTIONS W/OUT REAL DATA ON THE SUBJECT?

OF OPENING DIFFICULT/ROTTEN CORKS