Twist and Shout: In Praise of Screw Tops

When I was a senior in college, for Christmas my parents gave me a case of wine—all sealed with corks, of course. This may seem like an unwise choice, but I suspect that they were trying to get me to hang out at home instead of being out and about, where trouble of the kind that requires late night phone calls to Mom and Dad might ensue. Plus, they were betting that the corks would force me to take my time with the bottles. After all, they knew my wine opener was barely functional, let alone my judgment.

At that time had you asked me to choose between a wine bottle topped by a screw top vs. cork, I most definitely would have opted for the screw top.  As time has passed, however, I have acquired better openers and grown to appreciate the theater surrounding the uncorking of a bottle of wine.

But is theater all a cork provides? Aren’t corks always the superior choice when it comes to sealing a bottle of wine? And—here’s the most important question—aren’t all screw-top wines the kind of stuff you might’ve found me tossing back on a very special night with my roommates?

In short, the answer is no.

The Shocking Truth about Corks

You know how much I like quizzes, right? (Have you taken the Wine Tribe Quiz yet?) Here’s another one for you. True or False?

Q. Screw tops are the mark of cheap and unsophisticated wines.

A.  False. More and more good winemakers are using screw tops to avoid cork taint, a condition that can spoil between 2 and 4 percent of all wines.

Q.  Corks allow the wine to breath in a way that aids in its aging.

A. False. Both natural cork and screw tops allow for a teeny tiny bit of breathing. But contrary to widely held belief, breathing while in the bottle isn’t material to the aging of the wine.

Q. Portugal produces half of the cork used in the world and cork trees cover roughly 10 percent of the country.

A. True. I love Portugal and I want to support the country’s cork growers, but if that’s my goal I can always buy a pair of cork shoes.

Go With What You Like

When choosing between corks and screw tops, it really it comes down to two questions:

Which wine do you want to drink? This should be your guiding principle, not how the wine is topped.

According to Wine Intelligence, a London-based research company, only about 60 percent of the world’s wines are topped with natural cork. In general, more new world wines—from places like the U.S., South America and Australia—use screw tops. That means if you are a fan of the French, you will likely be dealing with a cork.

Second question: how much does a sense of theater and romance matter to you? I have to admit, when I am at home I prefer the ease of a screw top. It’s a zip to open, and I don’t miss the struggle to jam the expanded cork back in the suddenly too-narrow neck if there’s some left in the bottle after dinner. When I am out to dinner, however, it’s a different story. After perusing the wine list and getting excited about the delights to come, seeing the server crack open my wine like she’s dealing with a 64-ounce Diet Pepsi just seems a bit anticlimactic.

I may have to get over that if I’m to follow my own advice, which is: buy wine based on what’s in the bottle, not on how it’s sealed. Don’t be afraid of screw tops. In many situations, a screw top is a smarter choice as you can avoid spoilage and get to the goods more quickly.

Have an opinion on this topic? Tell us about it by leaving a comment.