The Almighty Screwcap

In the past 10 years a staggering number of wineries have made the switch to the screwcap closure on their wines, forsaking the cork, and looking to climb into the 21^st century of wine closures. 

Screwcaps have been used for food closures since the 19^th century to preserve freshness.  In 1959 a French company, Le Bouchon Mecanique, created a screwcap called the “Stelcap-vin” that was intended specifically for wine in place of a cork closure.  The Swiss were the first to embrace the Screwcap in the 1970’s, used primarily for Chasselas,  a fresh light white that is particularly sensitive to being “corked”.  However, because of lack of acceptance and lack of awareness of the shortcomings of cork, it took another 30 years for the screwcap to gain traction in the international wine market. 

In 2000 a group of winemakers from the Australian wine region Claire Valley were fed up with the cork tainting their Rieslings, and decided to adopt screwcap, marketed in as "Stelvin caps", as closures for their premium wines.  Soon thereafter New Zealand winemakers, who were already looking for an alternative to cork, followed suit.  While this was a risky move and could conceivably result in consumer resistance, the winemakers were more concerned with improving the sustainability of their wines using screwcaps instead of corks. 

There are several reasons that these “pioneers of the screwcap”were looking for a replacement for the cork. Most notable perhaps, is something called “cork taint”.  Somewhere between 5-15% of wine is affected by TCA (2,4,6-Trichloroanisole) occurring when chlorine is used to wash the cork or from cork trees affected by organic pesticides. TCA has an offensive odor many describe as wet newspaper or moldy basement.  With corks there is always a possibility of the wine being oxidized or exposed to unwanted amounts of oxygen.  Screwcaps seal from the outside of the bottle creating an airtight seal. Some arguments against screwcaps state that the low levels of oxygen transmission are not beneficial to all wines and there are certainly wines out there that benefit greatly from slight oxidization.  

Since the early 21^st century, New Zealand has most notably taken the lead with over 85% of wineries using screwcap closures.  Every major winemaking country now produces wine using screwcaps, and although corks will probably never not be part of the wine, it’s amazing how something as simple as a wine closure has gained wide spread use over the past decade.  As a side note: in the middle of the switch many wineries have made from cork to the screwcap the quality and production methods of natural cork has greatly improved. 

Some still associate the screwcap with low priced wines, but since winemakers have been bottling their premium wines using screwcaps, they’ve definitely gained credibility in the world of wine. Consumers who were once attached to the romantic ritual of opening a wine bottle with a corkscrew are more recently embracing the convenience of the almighty screwcap.

-Carolyn