It's Getting All Screwed Up

By Joel Stein

If only the whole point of drinking wine weren't to impress people, screw tops would have taken off by now. Corks, many claim, are a great way to seal wine if you're a 15th century monk, but they're not so good today. Corks can crumble and allow air into a bottle, causing what is called corkage, a slight rotting of the wine. Some manufacturers have tried using plastic corks, but they don't always form a perfect seal and can impart their own flavor. So this year, many wineries are switching to screw tops--the same technology you find when opening a Colt 45. California's Bonny Doon, whose $130 Cabernet opens with a flick of the wrist, threw a funeral for the cork in New York City in October. The cork industry is fighting back with a p.r. campaign, but that won't stop vintners like New Zealand's Kim Crawford, whose bottles are all being switched to screw tops by next year. "There's nothing romantic about a corked bottle of wine," he says. Unfortunately, screw tops render obsolete the second snottiest aspect of wine: storing your bottles in a rack on their sides to keep the corks moist. --By Joel Stein