Cork or Screw Top?

I recently saw an industry statistic that indicated that up to 7% of all bottled wines are lost annually due to problems associated with the use of cork. That's a whole lotta wine. During his visit to the Joe Canal's in Lawrenceville, winemaker Sean Larkin told us about potential problems with screw-tops, which are often the result of mis-matched parts. But there are lots of outstanding wines that are bottled with screw-tops, so what's a wine lover to do?

Number 61 on the Wine Spectator Top 100 wines of 2009 is a 90-point Italian red blend, Monte Antico, and it's in a screw-top. People are very interested in the wine, especially when Joe Canal's has it on sale for less than $9.00, but some are resistant when they see the screw-top.

One of my favorite wines (The Lucky Country Shiraz) is bottled with a screw-top. And Australia is a leader in the use of screw-tops, which are good economically and environmentally. Yesterday, a customer came in for a particular bottle of Two Hands wine, which was priced around $80, and it was a screw-top. So I struck up a conversation with him about the whole issue, and about the bottle of Monte Antico. He knew he was buying a great bottle of Two Hands wine, and he was totally unfazed by the screw-top. He added three bottles of that Monte Antico to his one bottle of Two Hands, based on the Wine Spectator ratings.