Screw cap wines….. cool eh?

Dear Wine Ladies,

Is it still considered in bad taste, or un-cool, to serve a wine with a screw cap at a dinner party? I’ve seen quite a few wines with screw caps lately from different wine regions including a highly regarded, and priced one called PlumpJack from California. Your thoughts? Do the screw caps make a difference?

Rebecca

Dear Rebecca,

It is definitely time to get over it… over the stigma of screw caps that is. Indeed, many of the top wineries around the world today are converting to screw caps with New Zealand and Australia leading the charge. But they’re not alone, even France has jumped on the bandwagon, as well as many other important wine growing regions including our wines of British Columbia and Ontario, Oregon, Washington, and of course California. These days it’s not at all difficult to find producers putting their higher quality, red and white wines under screw cap either, no longer a closure simply for the every day quaffing wine.

We actually spoke with Marketing Manager Ryan Keith at PlumpJack Winery and Mr. Keith informed us that their premium Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 1997 was the first luxury wine to use a screw cap closure, released in 2000 for $270.00 (two bottles of wine). PlumpJack elected then to seal one half of their Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon under cork and the other with screw cap. Still today, this premium wine enjoys both closures satisfying all consumers. The general consensus on which closure satisfies most palates, including professionals, sommeliers and laymen, is, there isn’t one! Some people love the screw cap, some will not part with the cork and most can’t tell the difference when presented with the two options
blind, according to Mr. Keith’s remarks on a recent media tasting. One thing we do know for sure, with the estimates of cork taint affecting between 8% and 10% of all wines, the screw cap closure brings us one step closer to getting exactly what we expect out of the bottle. So bring it on, serve with pride and enjoy a 100% guaranteed tca free (cork taint) wine under a screw
cap.