Wine: A Look at Corks and Screw Caps

"Oh no, I don't want that." She pushes back the bottle, wincing, and attempts to pull back the credit card receipt she'd just signed. I could see it in her eyes. She has realized the horrible fault on the glistening new bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc she just purchased: It has a screw cap. Horror flashes in her eyes as she begs me to reconsider the transaction, "Can I just exchange it for something else, please?"

If the customer is always right, then this would be very simple. Substitute one thing for another, let her have her lovely day. Lots of people have fears about screw caps, box wine, and other ways of packaging wine, and most of these fears are based not on hearsay and indoctrination but on experience. These methods are, for the most part, a cheaper way to deliver wine, and, for many years, that meant if you had a really cheap wine (i.e., bad wine) then you would just flop a screw top on or saddle it in a box and sell it for less.

But that's not the case any more.