Corks and screw caps have similar functions: to keep wine from going bad. But choosing one or the other can be divisive. Many argue that corks are the key to excellent aging. Others say that twist-top wines are easier to open and keep faults like cork taint out of a wine.
What do you need to know about the two most common wine enclosures? We asked winemakers and sommeliers their stances on both.
Where does cork come from, and why do we use them for wine?
Every nine years, the outer skin of a cork tree is stripped off and corks are stamped out of the thick bark. The process isn’t harmful to the trees, which can can live for 200 years and produce thousands of corks their lifespan.
So, why did corks to become the de facto closure in the wine industry? “It’s porous and allows oxygen to slowly transfer into the wine, which helps soften young tannins and develop more characteristics in a wine,” says Brianne Engles, winemaker at Chamisal Vineyards in San Luis Obispo, California. “On the flip side, because cork is a natural product there are varying degrees of consistency and quality. You can find corks that are dry, crumbly or have holes or gaps — this makes wine oxidize prematurely.”
“Corks can deteriorate over time, leading to oxidation, and there’s always the risk of cork taint from TCA,” says Austin Bridges, the wine director at Nostrana and Enoteca Nostrana in Portland. Up to 5% of all wines with corks are affected with TCA (or cork taint), though major producers like Amorim are investing in technology to help remove cork taint, which can have disastrous effects on a wine.
And not all corks are created equally. Traditional corks are punched out of the strips of bark. The remnants are saved and fused together to make agglomerate corks. There’s also Nomacorc, a synthetic cork that looks similar to a real cork and can be made with synthetically produced cork, recycled ocean-bound plastic, or a sugar-cane based polymer.
Why do some wines use screwcaps?
France is to thank for the screwcap. In 1959, a French company patented then released the metal closure for wine bottles that opens with the twist of your wrist, no corkscrew needed.
When wine bottle screw caps first came to market, they were reserved for buck-a-chuck or other affordable wines of mixed quality, not bottles intended for seasoned drinkers to sip, let alone age.
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