The Sunday Magazine

Think again: Corks versus screw-caps

There’s no doubt a screw-cap is easier to use — so why do some vintners insist on continuing to seal their wine bottles with cork?
(CBC PEI)

This segment originally aired on Sept. 24, 2017.

There used to be just one way to open a bottle of wine.  

It involved a corkscrew, a bit of savvy about how the contraption functioned because, of course, they are not all the same. And it took some muscle, a little or a lot, depending on how stubborn a particular cork chose to be.

Then came the idea of the screw cap wine: no fuss, no muss, just twist off the top.

It's hard to understand is why the wine cork is still with us. What is the thinking behind preserving it, when a screw cap is a perfectly good — some would argue, a superior — way to seal a bottle of wine?

That is the subject of this week's episode of "Think Again," our occasional series about things that may need another think.

Belinda Kemp is a Senior Staff Scientist in Oenology and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario.

Belinda Kemp (Photo by Emma Rice)
Click 'listen' above to hear the full segment.