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Mmmm. Red booze.

Originally uploaded by Jim Moran.

The folks at Colorado Wine Co. make an interesting case for screwcap wine in their newsletter today. Excerpt from “We’re Screwed:”

Although the topic of cork vs. screwcap vs. synthetic cork has probably been overdiscussed in the wine world, it deserves some quick commentary because almost every week we hear someone whisper to their significant other, as they reach for a wine, “That’s a screwcap. We’re not getting a screwcap.”

Granted, when giving a gift or bringing wine to a party, you don’t want to have to be the wine dork who goes on about “cork taint”, Stelvin screwcaps and the demise of the nearly religious, ceremonial POP! when opening wine. But you should know the facts when spending your hard-earned money on fancy grape juice. Not only are screwcaps better than traditional corks for most wines, they are only surpassed in quality by wine-in-a-box.

Yes, the mortal enemy of wine is oxygen and that tinfoil-like bag in a box of wine is vacuum sealed so it shrinks as you drink it, keeping out the oxygen that jumps into bottles of wine when you uncork them.

But we’re not going to see many gift boxes of wine in our near future (however, it would be interesting to try and smack one against the bow of a boat to christen its maiden voyage).

Approximately 10% of all wine with traditional corks has “cork taint” or TCA, a chemical compound that effects cork during the cleaning process. And if you’ve never had this unpleasant experience, consider yourself lucky. It aint pretty.

Synthetic corks, which became the alternative of choice in the 90s, aren’t perfect seals so their popularity is on the quick decline. Like it or not, screw caps are probably the future (studies are currently being done to test their long-term viability).

We will always have our corks but they will trend towards the more expensive wines that are meant to lay down and cellar for years.

Screwcaps mean the wineries lose less inventory, lowering costs to them, and ideally lowering costs to you, the consumer.

If the prospect of corkscrews going the way of the Dodo depresses you, we will happily make a popping sound when opening wines at the bar for no extra charge.