News

Screw-cap or cork

12

Jan

Buying wine with a screw cap

There is some debate about the relative merits of screwcap enclosures over cork for wine.  Without a doubt more and more producers are placing their wines under screwcap. It is mostly the older producers or producers from the 'old world' that have resisted the trend. The screwcap is the preferred enclosure because the fail rate with cork, and particularly cork taint of wine, has been fairly high. Some sources have quoted 1 in 20 bottles (and higher) would suffer some sort of spoilage because of the cork. The screw cap will generally not experience the same difficulties. However there is still a possibility of spoliage, for example if the cap's seal is not intact because it has been dented or twisted. So when buying  a bottle wine under screw cap check the condition of the cap. Has it been dented or banged about? If so the seal might not be intact and the wine will possibly have oxidised. It is probably best to avoid damaged or suspect screw caps.

Some great advantages of the screw cap include:

1. Don't need a cork screw to open the bottle
2. You can store the wine standing up - as you no longer have to lay the bottles down to keep the cork moist.
3. Screw caps generally don't contain bacterial spores which can pollute the wine (like a cork does).
4. You can use the screw cap to re-seal the contents of a partially drunk bottle (although that never happens in my house).
5. The screw cap enclosures can generally be recycled.

But there is something romanctic about popping a cork - particularly from a glass of bubbly - that the screw cap cannot recreate.

There is some debate about the relative merits of screw cap -v- cork. Watch out for further blogs.

Cin cin!

The Wine Tailor

Comments

No comments posted so far.