Some consumers are still turned off by a wine with a screwcap, believing it to be a cheap alternative to corks. In fact, the opposite is often the case.
Until fairly recently, almost all wines were stoppered with a cork. This had been the case for hundreds of years. However, a small percentage of corks were infected with a chemical compound known as 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA for short), which gave the wine nasty aromas described as musty, dirty dishcloth, wet dog, or damp cardboard. Not pleasant.
Other wines were not corked but tasted different due to oxidation. Sometimes the corkiness was very mild, sometimes it was obvious to everyone. Either way, the wine did not taste the way it should. Some people can taste this kind of thing more than others. Alas, there is no way to heal a corked wine; it should be poured down the sink.
Many producers were frustrated with the quality and inconsistency of the corks they received. Winemakers in Australia and elsewhere in the southern hemisphere were convinced they received corks that were inferior to those offered to their European counterparts (corks are manufactured mainly in Portugal). In 2000, a group of winemakers in the Clare Valley in South Australia took a brave step and agreed among themselves that all Clare Valley rieslings would be bottled under screwcap. They were quickly followed by their New Zealand counterparts. Today, the corkscrew is virtually obsolete in New Zealand – it is rare to find any wine with a cork.
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Since then, it has been proven that a screwcap is the most reliable method of sealing a bottle of wine. Alternatives include a crown cap, as used on a bottle of beer, which works well but faces consumer resistance, and plastic corks, which are cheap but are difficult to remove and impossible to put back in the bottle. It is argued that wines under screwcap evolve more slowly than wines with cork. This may be true, but how many of us age wines for more than a few days?
Belatedly, the cork industry, which had often denied there was a problem, tried to solve the problem. One alternative is the DIAM cork, made by a patented method from natural cork but treated to remove the danger of any cork taint. Importantly, it looks like a cork, reassuring for traditional consumers. Amorim, the largest Portuguese cork producer, is working hard to resolve the problem of TCA.
If you scan the shelves of your local wine shop, you will see a high percentage of non-European premium wines are bottled under screwcap, while most of the French, Spanish and Italian wines have corks. This is largely down to consumer resistance in the country of origin. German and Austrian wines are more likely to have screwcaps.
