Those screwy caps!

Like most of you, I used to have the exact same answer. I thought red OK to hold bowl because red isn’t chilled, but white, always the stem. But according to the number one or two food and beverage school in the nation (they keeping switching with Cornell), and backed up by all the wine places I have been to in the past 2 weeks… you can hold the wine glass ANYWHERE. Unless you’re from a Venus, hand heat is not sufficient to warm wine during the duration it is in the glass that would be detectable to the average wine consumer. I was watching a few somms drink wine and they were holding the glass from the foot. So if you like holding the stem, stay with it. But if holding that bowl feels A-OK too, don’t feel like an oaf. You won’t damage the wine.

The cork issue. Cork is from the cork tree. It takes 30 years before cork can be harvested. As more and more wine was produced, wine makers realized OH SNAP (still can’t drop that word!) we are going to run out of cork. More trees were planted, but OH SNAP (again!) there is going to be a 18 year gap of no cork.

Wineries start to experiment with other closures.

Many New World wineries have embraced the screw cap. If you don’t plan to age a wine more than 5 years, the screw cap will keep your wine fresher than cork. There are very good wines out there that have screw caps, but no great wine uses them. Probably because the public hasn’t totally embraced the idea. Also, it is a considerable gamble to test it on those pricier bottles.

A screw cap won’t prevent cork taint though, because it’s a bacteria that can be in the lines.


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