Do You Care

[pavman]

Personally I quite like the screw top bottles in fact the wine is almost always good, a friend who used to waiter says its now removed the little table ceremonies performed to “add value to your dining experience” as doing the screw top is nothing like pulling a cork!

 

looks like in the interests of our carbon footprint we will all soon be getting our wine in screw top plastic bottles as they are lighter so cost less to transport and are cheaper to make.

 

Any purist care to comment

[PhilR]

A lot of my French friends are quite particular when it comes to taking wine to someone's house and spend hours trying to find the right bottle(s). However, for home quaffing they see nothing wrong with nipping down to the local wine shop or winery and filling up a 1.5L empty plastic water bottle from the barrels out the back at little comparative cost.

 

When the 'cork', be it real or plastic is pulled at the table you can be reasonably sure you're getting the wine you paid for. However, with the screw top and a bit of sleight of hand by the wine waiter you wouldn't know whether the £20 bottle has been filled out the back as above.

Edited November 4, 2011 by PhilR

[yates]

I am by no means a purist and agree with you that the taste is the same with screw tops, i still like to use the corkscrew, but thats probably just nostalgia. I don't get the plastic bottle thing, i'm sure i read something about plastic altering the taste of the wine but i may be wrong. Can't complain as i've just bagged 12 bottles of Hardys Bin 53 Chardonnay for £35.00 from Makro

[bi9johnny]

i go to the greek islands each year and always buy home made wine from the restaurants in empty water bottle ruddy good stuff too

[TaxiDriver]

Have never gotten the whole wine thing, it's all fit for chips far as Im concerned.

 

When I drove HGV's for a living, I used to haul various bulk tanks or containers of wine which came in from all around the world, either in 1000litre plastic containers, 50gallon metal drums lined with plastic or giant Stainless Steel tanks.

This bulk wine went to be bottled or blended and bottled in the UK, and either came out in corked or screw top bottles.

[rabbit_stu]

I am by no means a purist and agree with you that the taste is the same with screw tops, i still like to use the corkscrew, but thats probably just nostalgia. I don't get the plastic bottle thing, i'm sure i read something about plastic altering the taste of the wine but i may be wrong. Can't complain as i've just bagged 12 bottles of Hardys Bin 53 Chardonnay for £35.00 from Makro

 

Its liek having a pint in a glass or plastic... alwys better in a glass!

[DSPUK]

I am a Lidl wine purest and they come in screwtops - I would really like them with a cork - nothing to do with image or taste - my hands are so weak with old age I have hell of job undoing screwtops but find it much easier with a corkscrew.

 

dave

[Kes]

The wine can speak for itself but I like it in a glass, just the same as I like tea froma china mug/cup.

I do worry about the type of stopper as I remember watching a David Attenborough programme which examined the unique habitat associated with the culture of vast 'orchards' of cork oak in Portugal. As the demand for cork for wine bottles reduces, so these unique habitats are lost as the trees are grubbed up. Since I'm a wildlife lover, I buy corked wine but they are increasingly hard to find and no guide at all to the quality of wine !!!

[Fatcatsplat]

Which leads to the poser - If a wine with a cork seal isn't airtight, the wine is known as corked. Does that mean that we now have to tell the sommelier that our wine is screwed?

[Thunderbird]

Which leads to the poser - If a wine with a cork seal isn't airtight, the wine is known as corked. Does that mean that we now have to tell the sommelier that our wine is screwed?

 

Nice.

 

The thing is, some would say the ageing process of wine relies in part on a little bit of oxidisation, too tight a seal and you don't get that. It's a difficult issue.

 

To be honest most of the time I don't care if my wine is a cork or a screw cap, I know what I'm buying and many new world wines knock spots off old world ones at the same budget, and they almost all come with screw caps nowadays.

Edited November 4, 2011 by Thunderbird

[Mrs Sweepy]

I like mine to come in a big,big glass

Or better still just give me the bottle

xxxxSuzy

[Dekers]

Plastic bungs over cork were bad enough!

 

I detested the thought of a screw top on wine, but now accept it does have its place for home use.

 

Nevertheless, it does seem to devalue the wine experience psychologically, and still doesn't seem right at all in the restaurant.

 

Enough already, lets keep some dignity and leave the plastic bottles for the party specials!

 

[silpig5]

i asked the question about screw tops and it was a simple and good answer . several years ago there was a really bad batch of cork and it affected lots of top wine , a screw top is a fraction of the price and keeps a better seal .

this came from the adnams wine buff so i guess its right .

my weekday red is a screw top and my fave weekend malbec was a cork but recently been changed to screw . since screw top ive never had a duff bottle .

 

its now the weekend so i think i might just have to go have a screw !

 

adi

[Fatcatsplat]

For those of you wanting the whole pulling and smelling the cork experience (which seems to be a reverse "train driving into a tunnel" type thing :yp: ), why not unscrew and decant - If you don't want to see a screwtop bottle, nothing says flash like a big old balloon decanter on the table with a couple of bottles of plonk poured in it. Works really well on big wines, letting thome get some air.

[Maidment78]

Used to care, these days not too fussed, I get mine delivered from Virgin and have never had a bad bottle, and there have been a few. There is the whole eco consideration regarding cork production but as regards to the taste of the wine that is only a few seasons old there is very little to tell.

[Thunderbird]

For those of you wanting the whole pulling and smelling the cork experience (which seems to be a reverse "train driving into a tunnel" type thing :yp: ), why not unscrew and decant - If you don't want to see a screwtop bottle, nothing says flash like a big old balloon decanter on the table with a couple of bottles of plonk poured in it. Works really well on big wines, letting thome get some air.

 

Good idea and in fact may have more of an effect with a screwtop wine. Wine doesn't really breather unless it's decanted. Many fine wines taste better the day after, if you can wait that long, in fact not just fine wines. Most wine does actually.

[UKPoacher]

When we go to Cyprus we usually buy wine in 1 litre cartons for about 1.50 Euro. It's exactly the same stuff restaurants serve in a carafe for 6 Euro. When we go to France however, our friends won't let us drink any old plonk. No. We have to suffer the quality 2 Euro a bottle bargains they get from the twice-annual supermarket clearance sales. The same wines over here would be over £10 a bottle. Cork and all.