Screw Cap Etiquette


• By Allen Dale "Ole" Olson   |   Friday, June 26, 2009 at 11:24 am   |     |   Print   |   Permalink

I wish the screw cap perforation on wine bottles could be more pronounced so I coud see it in the dim light of my cellar. On several occasions I have tried to turn a screw through the top of a metallic cap. I have nothing against screw caps, recognizing that they are here to stay, but I do resent that even the tiniest of servers can twist them off without gritting their teeth while my ancient wrist has to go full bore to perform the same task.

Which suggests an issue just now finding its way into wine literature. Is there a screw cap ritual? Should there be? There has always been something romantically dramatic about a sommelier carefully trimming the foil and gently easing the wine key into the cork, removing it ever so gently. While I seldom sniff the cork, there is a touch of whimsy about taking it from the server for a look.

At two different places on my recent travels, a server twisted off the cap, set the bottle on the table and disappeared. (One of them did say, “Cheers.”) I never saw the cap because it disappeared with the server. There was nothing romantic about the service, though the wine was good, exactly what I had ordered.

I have asked around about this question of serving wine from a screw capped bottle. There is no consensus. I get the impression that professional sommeliers prefer the traditional cork and its attendant ritual and that average servers, especially young ones, like the convenience and relative ease of twisting it off. (None of them like plastic or artificial corks.)

So what’s a server to do, there being no prescribed screw cap etiquette? For starters, I suggest he or she present the bottle to the host for verification that the wine is indeed the one asked for. I’d like to see the server face the table while removing the cap and then pour a taste into the host’s glass for further approval before serving the other guests. Nor would it be a bad idea to let the host hold the bottle to check for flawed aromas. I see no need for the cap to be left on the table or given to the host.

I don’t think these suggestions are too much to ask in this high-speed convenience-first age in whch we live. Wine was never intended to be a “quick drink” beverage, and its very nature calls for a contemplative setting. If we must replace an 18th century ritual with 21st century technology, let’s be just as inventive in creating an etiquette to go with it.

3 comments

• Carrol Farley   |   July 2nd, 2009 at 11:03 am    

“Ole”, you have such a pleasant way of getting your point/thoughts across. This was a very enjoyable article.

• Mou   |   July 17th, 2009 at 7:25 pm    

Why… why …. wny!!!!! …

Wny the cocked wine percentage is been so large that the industry is being pushed to go srew cap.

We are screwed. Even though I agree with some neccesary etiquette with screw caps, nothing made by the waiter will replace the romance of corck.

I just hope a better enclose come up, or a better corck manufacturer, because I can’t accept losing the romanticism of cork.

So sad, let’s drink.

Mou

• Allen "Ole" Olson   |   July 18th, 2009 at 8:43 am    

Mou

I hope, too, for a romantic ending to this development. Shall I remind readers that wine-in-a-box is already here? How romantic can that be!

Ole

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