The role of the Church in the production and marketing of wine declined with the Reformation, particularly in northern Europe, but this did not convulse the wine world half as much as the discovery of the usefulness of corks about a century later. For the first time since the Roman empire, wine could now be stored and aged in bottles.
Corks or screw caps – The closing argument
It is now very rare to find the total use of natural cork to stop wine bottles with the Rioja region of Spain being the most obvious exception. Increasingly, for a wide variety of reasons, the use of plastic stoppers and screw caps is becoming widespread. Why is this so, and what are the pros and cons of each method, and what should we be looking for when considering the alternatives? This really is a topic of hot debate in the world of wine at the moment. By tasting wines using the different methods of stopping, you can join this debate fully with your own opinions, thereby reinforcing the subjectivity of wine appreciation.