Trixie and I have been debating this one for Valentine’s Day. I want to screw and she doesn’t. Before I take this any further, get your mind out of the gutter! We are debating the merits of corks vs. screw caps. There is an on going debate about which one is better. Personally as long as the wine is good I don’t care how they seal it. My job is to open the seal and the easier the better. Unless I am showing off for friends and want to do a cork popping show. Then again, my friends don’t care about the opening, they just want their glass filled - a very practical and to the point kind of group.
I think the screw cap thing is partly the traditionalists a.k.a. wine snobs, not wanting to mess with this ancient tradition. I am also sure makers of cork screws would see the cork-less bottles as a problem. The traditionalists have this “wine bottles have been sealed with corks for 100 million years” attitude. Although I don’t recall if they had wine 100 million years ago. If I found one of these “extreme vintage” bottles, it would definitely not be Vintage Tuesday. More likely, Vintage Neanderthal.
After a hard day of fighting dinosaurs and trying to discover fire and the wheel, Gorg would come home to his cave and pretty wife Crog to sip some neanderwine (just made that one up - pretty good huh?) One day, long before Gorg and Crog invented the calendar, Gorg brought home a bouquet of flowers, chocolates and a dinosaur tooth on a chain for his bride Crog. They celebrated over a glass of neanderwine. I won’t go into what happened later that evening. Archaeologists believe that historically this event occurred on what is now February 14th. We are still not sure how they sealed the wine bottle.
Fast forward 100 million years and the February 14th tradition started by Gorg and Crog still continues. Also the question of whether to pop or screw still remains. Perhaps screw caps are a way of saving the planet’s cork population. (I have saved lots of corks - you can make some really cool things out of them) When it comes to screw caps there are some people that might remember (or not) the original screw caps of Boone’s Farm, Ripple and a few other “classier wines”. Oh no… FLASHBACKS!!
Today Trixie and I are going to try to settle the great debate. In honor of Valentine’s day and our ancestors Gorg and Crog, we are going for the screw route. A wine that is an obvious screw cap selection is called “Screw Kappa Napa.” I have seen this bottle at our local store for years (although I doubt if it was really the same bottle all these years) but never tried it. Today is the day! The first thing I noticed is there is no “pop” of the cork. This sound usually gets Trixie salivating like Pavlov’s dog and she comes running holding out an empty glass. No pop really is not such a bad idea because I can get one glass down before she knows I opened the bottle. Kind of like a Stealth bottle opening. There might be advantages to screw caps after all!
This wine had a great berry flavor and a fantastic texture. A wonderful wine for hearty meat dishes. - or any food!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Angus
February 14th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
I believe that if enough screwing is accomplished, that popping the cork is an eventuality.