Screwcapped wines are now respectable, but over the past year I have tasted plenty of duds among the delights, and wines closed with natural corks have fared no better. Although cork taints or screwcap problems are nothing new, the failure rate is not diminishing. Why?

No sensible wine drinker is going to refute that screwcaps are convenient or that popping a cork can be a joy, but it is irritating that, after almost a decade of research and effort, winemakers appear no closer to eradicating the taints caused by either. Corked wine tastes musty and malodorous, the result of the mould-associated chemical trichloroanisole, while screwcapped wine can suffer from bitter finishes, flat, jammy aromas and reduction-caused odours, which start with the hydrogen sulphide pong of bad eggs and work up to the full cabbagey stench of sewers and rotting garlic.

The truth is that no one in the wine industry understands completely why these faults occur or how to solve them. It used to be thought that the problems associated with screwcaps stemmed entirely from the inability of winemakers to prepare wines properly for screwcaps. Most winemakers now agree that it is all about controlling the amount of oxygen present in the bottle. A fair few admit that the best way to seal big, tannic medium-to-expensive reds is to use natural cork, which allows a slow, symbiotic relationship between air and wine.

Drinkers have their own misconceptions regarding screwcaps, the chief one being that they are a cheap alternative to corks, when in fact they cost about 10 per cent more to produce. Others fret over the best way to store screwcapped wines: vertically or horizontally. Either works, but vertical is best. I just wonder how fast wines age under a screwcap. I have tasted several cheap screwcapped reds that seem to have hurtled towards a jammy death, but equally, I’ve drunk a fancy chablis that was still going strong several years down the track.

See for yourself how fine screwcapped wine can be with the wondrous ripe, spicy, rose-scented 2006 Mount Difficulty Pinot Noir from New Zealand’s prime Central Otago region (Waitrose, £19.99). Equally impressive, and from Australia, is the 2005 Cape Mentelle Cabernet-Merlot (Tesco and Majestic, £11.99) , which has fat, minty, velvety fruit. A grand screwcapped white to consider is the classic 2006 Chablis Premier Cru from Labouré-Roi (Tesco, £12.99), which has a steely, mineral pizzazz. Look out too for this handy Chilean duo: the zesty, verdant 2007 Yali Winemaker’s Selection Sauvignon and the ripe, juicy, herby 2007 Yali Winemaker’s Selection Cabernet-Carmenère (£5.99 each, or £3.99 if you buy two at Majestic).

Screwcaps aren’t ideal, but then corks aren’t either.

jane.macquitty@thetimes.co.uk

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