WINE

RUN! HIDE! THE SCREW CAPS ARE COMING.



I'm not talking dandelion wine or other rot gut. The best of wines will all soon be using screw caps instead of cork stoppers. Most German wineries, except those for export, have already switched over. I bought a decent California wine recently with a screw cap. Many of those that are holding out are now using composite cork (a cork made with bits of real cork and a filler held together by glue). Other producers of wine have gone to totally synthetic stoppers that are made to resemble cork. Bottles with cork stoppers have to be stored on their sides so that the cork stays wet to prevent cork shrinkage and resultant oxidation. Bottles with synthetic stoppers or screw caps do not have to be stored on their sides.



Cork stoppers are made from the bark of the cork oak tree. 50% of all the cork stoppers are made from cork produced in Portugal. A cork oak tree has to be about 25 years old before it will yield its first cork. The bark of a single cork oak tree can only be harvested once every ten or twelve years. The trees live about 150-200 years. It is against the law to cut down a cork oak tree in Portugal.



Screw caps actually give a better seal than cork as do properly sized synthetic stoppers. Wine connoisseurs have traditionally turned up their collective albeit talented noses at anything but real cork. You can't smell a crew cap to see if it has cork taint.