Tainted Tradition Versus Tainted Wine

Is there any sound more inviting than the squeak of the corkscrew and the cork pulled from a bottle of wine? In your dining room, it can stir impulses like a chocolate soufflé at the next table. What if that bottle happens to have a screw cap? Is that an affront to the charm and romance of the moment?

Proficient wine service is an art form, regardless of the closure. Look at the entire picture. Isn't a sommelier more than an opener of containers? Fine wine service is a combination of careful selection of wines on the list, subtlety educating and guiding the guest to the right bottle for their meal, and serving with grace and style.

Some restaurants take a stance against anything but natural cork, allowing not one bottle with a screw cap to grace their wine list based simply on aesthetics. One could argue that this is shortsighted, given that we did not enjoy the invention of the fork until the late 17th century.

Enter the Screw Cap

Why is there a movement toward a screw cap? One reason is the seemingly growing incidence of "cork taint," which changes the way a wine smells and tastes, and not for the better. A wine that suffers severely from a tainted cork has a dank, musty aroma which some liken to a cross between wet grass, rotten cardboard, old sneakers and damp laundry forgotten in the washing machine for a few days. Before we knew better, those in the wine business would wait for the taint to "blow off" or dissipate, but in fact it increases as it sits in the glass. You can usually, but not always, smell it on the cork and in the wine. The culprit is TCA or trichloroanisole, a chemical compound that can infect natural cork. (For more information, see "Climbing the TCA Learning Curve" below.)

What About Plastic Corks?

Synthetic corks have improved greatly in the last several years. Screw-top proponents argue that the seal is not as good as either cork or screw caps. They also argue that synthetic corks can be difficult to extract from the bottle, and difficult to get back into the bottle. On the positive side, the synthetic cork addresses the concern over TCA, while somewhat overcoming the negative perception consumers might still harbor against screw caps. There are many wines using this closure. Bearing in mind the objections to plastic corks, these wines might be best for immediate enjoyment; i.e., you need to finish the bottle while you're at it. That said, if your staff is able to reseal the bottle adequately without undue strain, then this point might be moot.