The twists and turns of the screwcap saga continue. Typically, old fogeys like the French continue to hate them, while contemporary drinkers miss the pop of the cork but rather enjoy the effortless twist and snap of a cap. I could not care less what closure a winemaker chooses to seal his or her wine, but experience has taught me that young, cheap, zippy whites made from grapes such as sauvignon blanc and riesling keep fresher and fruitier for longer under screwcaps. Equally, big, burly, tannic reds, including classy clarets and turbo-charged rhônes, benefit greatly from the long, slow, symbiotic but unpredictable relationship between natural cork, air and wine.

There are no benefits at all to be had from those horrid bullet-hard plastic corks that occasionally leave a whiff of plastic in the wine and are impossible to remove and ram back into bottles.

Screwcap wines may have made corked wines — those tainted by that unmistakeable musty, mushroomy pong — a thing of the past, but wine insiders agree that they are a far from perfect wine closure. Screwcapped wines can often taste flat and jammy, or are more obviously tainted with stinky, reduction-caused odours that range from a faint rotten-egg smell through to a foul sewer-like stench. My taint hit-rate for corked wines and faulty screwcaps continues to hover around one bottle in every case of wine I open — a figure that is far too high.

Preventing screwcaps from leaking and controlling the amount of oxygen present in the bottle is the next big thing for wine scientists. Screwcap producers are beginning to understand the benefits, especially with big earthy reds, of letting minute amounts of oxygen penetrate their closures, precisely in the same way that porous natural corks work. The latest generation of screwcaps come with low or high permeability built in. Who knows if this more controlled micro-oxygenation will eliminate screwcap wine taints entirely, but in the meantime, tuck in to other classy wines with this closure.

Tesco has sealed its delicious rich, leafy, spicy red 2005 Monte Nobile Squinzano Riserva from Puglia in Italy with a Korked permeable screwcap, with an easy-to-spot trio of buttonholes on a membrane on the top of the capsule (£8.99, but down to £4.49 from Wednesday until November 24). Sainsbury’s intense, ripe, nutty, glacé fruit 2007 Taste the Difference Chablis is a great £8.96 screwcap buy, as is Jackson Estate’s gorgeous gooseberry and tropical fruit-laden Stich Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough in New Zealand (Majestic £9.99, or buy two for £7.99 each). Alternatively, scoop up Waitrose’s new plummy, gamey 2008 Château La Forêt Beaujolais for only £5.99. Screwcaps are here to stay.

The keeper: 2007 Bishop’s Head Pinot Noir, Waipara, New Zealand Private Cellar (01353 721999) £12.10 Cellaring a juicy, Kiwi pinot noir with lots of delicious, sweet, young, plummy, beetrooty fruit does make sense. With age, all sorts of fine, complex, smoky, gamey flavours will pop up as that vibrant beetrooty fruit fades. Waipara, between Christchurch and Blenheim, is, with the top-drawer Central Otago, a South Island pinot noir source to watch.

THIS WEEK’S BEST BUYS

2008 Gran Lopez Airén Sauvignon Blanc, La Mancha, Spain Waitrose, £3.99 Britain’s best contemporary Spanish white that costs less than £4 sings with fresh, zippy lemon and floral fruit.

2008 Classic Côtes du Rhône, France Waitrose, £3.99 Cheap-as-chips, easy-drinking, spicy, fruity red rhône made predominantly from the grenache grape. What’s not to like?

2008 White Burgundy, France Sainsbury’s, £5.69 Terrific classic burgundy from the Buxy co-operative, with this elegant white oozing zesty, floral, aromatic, grapey fruit.

2008 Red Burgundy, France Sainsbury’s, £5.69 A tasty and distinctive red burgundy. Its fine, ripe, juicy, gamey fruit closes on that classic, tangy, strawberry note of young pinot noir.

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