There are plenty of you though, including David Clemmow of Great Gransden, Bedfordshire, who are hazy about the storage and keeping qualities of screwcapped bottles. Unlike naturally corked wines, which must be stored horizontally in order to ensure the wine-wet cork remains a plump and pliable seal, screwcapped wines can be stored vertically, too. The vast majority of the young, zippy, aromatic, white and red screwcapped wines on sale here should be drunk when they are at their perkiest and most precocious, and that means within a year of purchase.

Despite wine producers’ and modern drinkers’ general enthusiasm for screwcaps, a fair few winemakers continue to argue that the finest and rarest vintages, destined for many years ageing, should not be bottled under this closure. Those in the anti-screwcap corner claim that several long-distance trials have shown that more full-bodied whites and reds left for decades under this closure taste dull and jammy as a result. By comparison, the same wines closed with natural cork, allowing a slight transfer of oxygen, have mellowed into finer bottles. However, this has not stopped some fancy burgundy and bordeaux producers from closing with screwcaps.

The latest twist in the story is a New Zealand team’s research which demonstrated that screwcapped two-year-old Marlborough sauvignon blancs were significantly more seductively scented than the same wines stoppered with natural corks. Almost a quarter more of those seductive tropical fruit aromas were found in the screwcapped versions than the naturally corked wines.

Don’t just take my word for it, twist open the 2005 Blind River Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, whose zingy tropical fruit and gooseberry-laden palate is a star at just £9.99 at Oddbins. Or lap up a cracking claret, such as the 2003 Château Segonzac, whose ripe, plummy, yet herby fruit is easily worth £7.99 at Waitrose. While you are there, pick up the elegant, nutty, verdant, classy white bordeaux, 2004 Château Tour Léognan, £9.99. Finally, start spring early with a fancy screwcapped beaujolais, the superb dusky berry fruit-charged 2002 Morgon Domaine des Souchons from Condemine-Pillet (£8.99, Oddbins). Screwcaps it is, then.

jane.macquitty@thetimes.co.uk

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