Corks vs. Screwcaps...

Everytime I do a wine tasting/event, I'm asked about my preference for enclosures. Is it cork, or screwcap? My answer: screwcap for 99% of wine. That 1% would be for Bordeaux/Burgundy, or anything that can be aged for a long period of time. Below are a couple "pros & cons" about each enclosure:

Cork

Pro:

• there's something about opening a bottle of wine with a corkscrew. You know what I mean, it's tradition. It's like driving a car with a stick shift. Some people just prefer a manual operation of their vehicle.
• cork is porous. Over time, small (and I mean small) amounts of air pass through the cork, and hit the wine. By slightly oxygenating the wine, it takes on a different aging process in the bottle.

Con:

• cork is porous, and acts like a sponge sometimes. If a wine is stored too warm, the cork expands and allows oxygen in contact with the wine. Once that cork cools down, it captures the oxygen, and creates a seal. Your wine could be shot at that point.
• cork is made out of bark of oak trees growing wild in the western Mediterranean. Molds on the cork interact with bleaching components (to sterilize) and form a compound called TCA. This creates a musty, moldy odor known as being "corked". It is estimated that 3-5% of all wine in cork have TCA. 1 out of every 20 bottles.

Screwcap

Pro:

• every time you open a bottle of wine, the juice inside will be good. No questions asked. This is particularly good for white wine, because white wine HATES oxygen.
• if I were to spend $50 on a bottle, I'd want to make sure the juice was going to be good. The worst thing is to buy a nice bottle, age it for a few years, and find out once you open it, that the bottle is "off". Money down the drain.

Con:

• there's no romance in opening a screwcap. It's like anything else..rum, whiskey, beer.
• we don't know how wines that technically benefit from cork (like Bordeaux/Burgundy) will age with screwcap. It's still a relatively newer concept, so we'll have to wait. Some Burgundy producers have bottle vintages in cork AND screwcap, just to compare the 2 wines in the future.

In summary, here is my buying recommendation:
- White wines: Always screwcap, over cork. You want the majority of whites to be crisp, clean, and refreshing.

- Red wines: anything meant to be drank young (3-5 years)...screwcap. Anything high end ($75-$100/btl) from France, Italy, Spain, or California...cork.  The jury is still out on how these wines will age.