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PrintCorked or Screwed?
When it comes to opening wine, the romantic “pop” of a pulled cork is being replaced by the “crack” of an untwisted screw cap. Wineries in Australia and New Zealand have led the way, but more and more of the world’s wine producers are switching to screw caps.
It’s not that corks are suddenly passé, but cork can be a breeding ground for an invisible mold called TCA. The volatile mold creates a smell like wet newspapers. Nothing harmful about the stuff, but the smell overwhelms the more evanescent character of a bottle of wine, and when you pay twenty dollars for a bottle, the aroma of Tuesday’s edition left out in the rain … well, it’s not the aroma you expect.
The cork industry has struggled to remove or, better yet, to prevent the growth of TCA, and there is no question that it’s far less common than five or ten years ago, when 5 or 10 percent of all wines might have betrayed its effects. But there are still problems.
As a result, some people are championing synthetic corks, but there are more than a few critics, too. Some versions require Rambo-sized brawn to remove the cork from the bottle, and I find vise grips handy when removing the cork from the corkscrew. The latest synthetics, the ones that look like a plug wrapped in pantyhose, are easier to remove. But there are still those who insist that ten years hence the wines these corks protect will be less fruity and interesting than those closed with an oak cork.
Screw-cap opponents insist that screw caps take away from the romance of wine. There is also a murmur in the industry that screw caps create off-aromas in wines but little agreement as to whether it’s true and why it might occur.
Still, there’s no argument about the screw cap’s ease of use. You don’t need a special instrument (a corkscrew) to open it, and it’s far easier to reclose when you want to save some for tomorrow. Some of my relatives have arthritis and can’t open wine unless it’s in a twist-off bottle. Those same relatives are ecstatic that good wine exists in a screw-cap bottle.
So am I. Wine is too good for people, too wholesome of character, too rich in personality, too flavorful and exciting, too healthful to be the province of the rich and the specialized. Though I wonder whether screw caps can elevate wine to a more prominent place at the American table, I believe this–it’s a start.
