Nothing To Wine About

The end of a very long era:

While New World wines have adopted the screw top for years - with up to 90 per cent of New Zealand wines and 60 per cent of Australian bottles using them – giving up the time-honoured cork has met with much stiffer resistance in France beyond the cheaper end of the market.

But according to one wine expert, two of the world's top names - Domaine de la Romanée-Conti in Burgundy, whose bottles can sell for tens of thousands of pounds, and Bordeaux's legendary Chateau Margaux – are now looking into screw tops.

I don't even like synthetic corks so of course I consider screw caps to be an abomination but hey, that's progress. And admittedly, they do prevent oxidation much better and more consistently than either type of cork. I just like the ceremony of opening the bottle the old fashioned way; there's always an aura of anticipation for what you're going to get from that particular bottle that twisting off a screw cap just can't inspire. C'est le vin.