If the Cap Fits

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Before you automatically reject that screw-cap bottle of wine as cheap and tacky, consider the fact that screw caps may be doing a better job of preserving wine than traditional corking.

The screw-cap-versus-cork controversy has long raged within the wine world. But it has received fresh impetus from what winemakers hope is a more receptive market—and from revelations that one in every 20 bottles is spoiled by faulty corks. Today's battle lines are roughly drawn between Old and New World producers, with France and Portugal refusing to budge from the standard cork—Portugal unsurprisingly, given that it produces $2 billion worth of corks every year.

However, Miguel Torres, president of Spain's resolutely old-world Bodegas Torres winery, is a supporter of screw caps. So is Peter Milne of West Coast Vineyards in South Africa. "So much good wine is lost because of faulty corks," he laments. Robert Hill Smith, CEO of Australia's Yalumba winery, says screw caps have kept his precious 1980 Yalumba Riesling vintage in far better condition than corks would have done.

Contrary to popular belief, a screw cap does not affect the taste of a wine. Neither does wine need to "breathe" through a cork—a myth debunked by Professor Pascal Ribereau-Gayon, author of The Handbook of Enology, whose research proved that reactions taking place in bottled wine do not require oxygen. There's no ecological imperative behind the introduction of screw caps, either, given that the total area of cork forests is expanding by about 4% a year. The motive is simply one of quality control. Some winemakers continue to pander to popular prejudice (Niel van Staden, of South Africa's big wine producer KWV, says his company won't use screw caps because "they don't fit our image"). But others are hoping that the screw cap will finally catch on, particularly for popular white wines. We see just one snag: the sound of a popping cork must be one of the most convivial noises known to humanity. How can a screw cap top that?