Its the ease of closing them that I like. Rarely will my wife and I agree on the wine. Those with screw caps allow a bottle to be opened and used for a few days and still get fine quality out of it.

I don't get this point. You can always stick the cork back in a bottle. I do it all the time. Plus you can purchase a "stopper" of most any variety.

And to repeat myself, I've never had a spoiled bottle of wine. So I really don't think it matters whether it is cork or screw top in terms of the quality. Sure it is possible to get a bad bottle, but that is the case with both cork and screw top. And it's too rare for me to worry about.

speaking of both wine & golf, I recently had a chat with chief sommelier of K Club Resort (Ryder Cup venue 2006) in Ireland. While showing me its cellar with the largest collection of Petrus in the country, she also happend to mention that 'screw' caps are the best by far and anyone who thinks other wise should put a 'cork' in it:D

What most synthetic corks and screw caps do not (or simply can't) do is show tracks, which can be helpful if opening a sample bottle before purchasing a lot that will be going into a cellar. It's less handy in a restaurant as a taste will indicate if there's some heat damage but it does provide some insight as to how the bottle was stored.

AWRI (Australian Wine Research Institute) did a study on wine closures and aging of Semillon that was performed over a 10 year period (sampling bottles annually). In my opinion, further research needs to be done for closures with red wine.

I do not drink wine, but my wife does. I will often open the bottle for her. We have a rabbit cork screw. The other night she hands me a bottle and the opener and foil cutter. I take the bottle and clamp the cutter on and twist and nothing comes off. I try again. Nothing. WTH?? I try again. This time, it works! I cut the top off a screw top bottle of wine with a foil cutter! :D

Hello, its my first post so be indulgent please, Im in Australia for a while and there are a lot of screw tops. And I prefere to see corks, I have more confidence about the quality, particulary on red wine.

When you say "quality", do you mean the quality of the wine/winery as compared to other wine/wineries? Or do you mean the quality of that particular bottle as compared to other bottles of the same wine? If it's the former, then you have almost nothing to worry about in Australia; they have embraced the screwcap even at the highest levels of winemaking. If it's the latter, then you are mistaken; the screwcap greatly increases your odds of having a good bottle of wine.

I am definitely in the camp of ensuring the best quality of the wine... and thus screwtops. I understand people historically associate screwtops with cheaper wines and am surprised that some of the higher end wineries have not developed a more attractive version of a screwtop/sealer that is cosmetically attractive and feels like it belongs on an expensive wine bottle. Curious if anyone has seen any efforts in this direction?

Better yet, would you rather say:

Hey buddy, put a cork in it!

or

Hey buddy, screw you!


These are important qustions that must be answered.

I'm on the fence about the debate. On one hand, screwcaps are very convenient- they are easy to open (no fancy implements needed) and easy to reseal. I don't have to worry about caps drying out or rotting.

On the other hand, there's a certain romance and fun in uncorking the bottle. In fact, I keep my corks in a glass container. Looking at it makes me smile because it reminds me of all the good times and wines and the wonderful people that I shared them with.

Used to hate the screwtops
 

After my 4th trip to Australia and many wine tours I had to learn to "get over" my dislike of screwtops. It's still a turn-off, but I had some truly wonderful wine in Australia with screwtops. However I would still not serve it to guests at home in America, unless I hid the bottle ;)

If I were using my real name I'd insist on cork. I'm not so I prefer screwtops. Example:

Pascal Jolivet Sancerre US$28.99 Wine.com
Pascal Jolivet Attitude US$18.79 Wine.com

They are essentially the same wine but Attitude has a screw top. Will I pay ten dollars for a cork. Nope! I have tried taste tests with my Sancerre-loving friends and they are unable to discern any difference. Screwtop for me!

It's always nice to see a cork on a bottle but now that most wines that we buy are for drinking 'now', there's arguably little reason for having a cork.

What a polarizing topic! I'm an avid wine drinker/collector and I think if it's a white wine that made to be drunk within 5 years of production, then put a screwcap on it by all means if it will save money. However, screwcaps are not a panacea, as mentioned earlier, for ensuring quality.

I prefer drinking wines with 20+ years of age and do so regularly therefore I'm extremely hesitant to advocate the use of screwcaps on bottles I intend on aging. I haven't yet tried a screwcap wine from the 1980s or before. When I last visited one of my favorite American wineries, Ridge Vineyards, I discussed this topic at length. They do blind tastings of their bottles with cork and screwcap on a regular basis and consistently prefer wines enclosed with a cork. So I will fully support their decision to use that going forward.

When I'm on holiday, I don't pack a stopper nor do I want to worry about packing a stopper. Or a corkscrew for that matter. I'm also not the ace of opening corks, perhaps I'm biased as I'm from one of the earliest adopters of screw caps. So I don't like having to deal with the occasional cork bit in the wine. It's for these reasons that I actively reject cork based bottles in favour of screw cap.

You can try push the cork back into the bottle, and unless you've lubricated it beforehand or are a cork-martial arts master, you'll just look dorky and expend too much effort for what takes 3 seconds with a screw cap.

But hey if we're talking about tradition, corks and glass bottles are too hi-tech. They're cold beasts. They lack the romantic allure of a traditional cask with its beautiful accentuation of oakiness :D