KEY POINTS:
What type of person are you? Do you like to hear the pop of the cork as it is drawn from the wine bottle? Or do you prefer the quick flick of the wrist and the satisfying click as the waiter undoes a screwtop before splashing your crisp
vintage into the glass?
This is no idle question. It will go down in history with such great arguments as those between the fans of test cricket and the one-day variety, lovers of vinyl versus lovers of CDs and the never-ending conflict between those who care for tradition and those eager for progress.
As with all such arguments, the discussion is usually conducted with a mixture of science and spin. And on the question of screwtops versus corks there has been plenty of both this week.
The corkers started it with a series of reports in the British press arguing that screwtops were not, after all, the answer to the age-old problem of corked bottles, wine tainted usually by a bad cork. It seemed that the new methods had brought a significant problem of their own: sulphidisation.
This means that when wine lovers open a bottle, the satisfying click of the cap can be spoiled by a smell of sulphur, a smell compared variously to burning rubber, spent matches, cabbages, onions or rotten eggs.
The corkers' scientific explanation is that the screwtop seal is too tight and allows no air into the bottle to counter the sulphur odour.
And they had plenty of facts and figures to back their case, the central one being that at the International Wine Challenge in Britain 2.2 per cent of 9000 screwtop wines suffered from sulphidisation. Not surprisingly screwtop supporters - and remember that up to 90 per cent of New Zealand wines use screwcaps - rose to the challenge, quickly identifying the corker spin.
For instance, the toppers defused the exaggerated claim that wine drinkers were likely to be overcome by the fumes of rotten eggs if they were unlucky enough to unscrew a bottle of tainted wine. The general manager of the Australian Wine Institute, Peter Godden, pointed out that it would require a ridiculously high level of sulphides to give a drop of the old pinot noir the impact of a schoolboy stink bomb.
Another expert described the problem as minor. Any unfortunate odour could be quickly dissipated by simply swilling the wine in the glass.
But the main thrust of the toppers' response was quite rightly based on science. Of course they knew all about the risk of sulphidisation. Why, they had methods of dealing with it in the winemaking process. In fact, Marlborough winemaker Dr John Forrest, who flies his colours on the New Zealand Screwcap Initiative, left no room for doubt about where blame lay. "Sulphide problems arise from sloppy winemaking, not screwcaps," he said.
That point, which was echoed by a number of expert toppers, is crucial in adjudicating the argument. Essentially it means that it is not really about the caps or the corks, but about the wine. If the winemakers do their jobs properly, there won't be a problem.
But that is not the end of it because there are other facts corkers are less eager to stress. One is that the rate of sulphidisation in bottles with corks at the International Wine Challenge was 4.4 per cent, twice the rate for screwtops, although some reports suggest these wines do not have the same odour problem.
Add to that the risk of the wine being corked - said to be up to one in 10 bottles, according to a British wine writer this week - and it seems clear that you are less likely to get a sulphidised screwtop than a corked cork.
The verdict, therefore, must go to the toppers. By a nose.
