Wine: Out with the Old Cork, In With the New Screw Top

The majority of people associate screw tops with cheap jug wine swill. So if you bring a screw top wine to a party, you may feel you need to bring a receipt and explanation. However, screw tops are rapidly replacing corks with many wine producers in an effort to combat "corked" wine and provide greater quality control.

The wine industry estimates that anywhere between 2 and 8 percent of all wines are corked, meaning that they are spoiled by oxygen or bacteria that enters the wine via a defective cork. Corked wine tends to have an immediate, unpleasant wet-newspaper smell and unfortunately it is difficult to tell if a wine has been "corked" prior to opening the bottle.

The job a wine cork serves is simple: to keep the wine inside the bottle and the air out. Because of its porous nature, cork has a deficient sealing capability in comparison to a screw cap. Screw tops now are so precise that the winemaker can adjust the tightness of the seal to allow more or less outside air to enter the bottle, without the risk of cork taint.

New Zealand vintners such as Tohu and Matua, California wineries such as RH Phillips and Whitehall Lane, and Washington's Hogue Cellars all widely use screw tops in place of cork. RH Phillips even included a tongue-in-cheek decorative cork with an explanation about why screw tops are preferable to corks and suggested alternate uses for the cork. Screw cap usage is not limited to low-end wines: PlumpJack Winery used screw caps with half of its 2000 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon that retails for more than $100 per bottle.

Despite the high rate of cork failure and apparent effectiveness of screw caps, cork is the traditional and predominant wine sealant. Screw cap proponents have a long way to go in consumer education screw caps will be fully accepted. Part of the wine experience for many is that "pop" and flourish when you remove the cork, whereas simply unscrewing a bottle feels mundane. For this reason, consumers, restaurateurs, and liquor store owners are not rapidly embracing the new screw caps. Additionally, as screw tops are still new technology, the verdict is still out on the long-term viability of its wine aging utility.

Public perception plays a large role in wine sales. However, a good bottle of wine is a good bottle of wine and the most important thing is the quality of the wine within the bottle, not how it is sealed. Quality and freshness will likely trump tradition in the long run as the screw caps become more widely used and available, and the wine industry continues its education process.