"Ami A. Silberman" wrote:
Actually, the main reason for the use of artificial corks, at least in
the wine business, is that the traditional real cork can more easily
contaminate the wine. (Hence the term "corked wine", which has a
distinct cardboard-like taste.) It is estimated that between 3% and 10%
of all wine bottles have some level of "corkedness". (Some people are
very good at noticing if a wine is corked, others notice it
subconsciously and think that the bottle just isn't that good.)

Noted.


Unfortunately, there hasn't been a long enough period to determine
whether the artificial cork replacements have a long-term (10+ years of
bottle age) effect on the wine. Oddly enough, the best cork alternatives
are probably either the screw top or the crown cap (like on beer and
soda bottles.) Unfortunately, neither is likely to catch on for fine, or
even table, wine, since they have connotations with wine so bad it can
only aspire to being plonk. Oddly enough, the Australians have no
problem with bottling fine wine using crown corks (for domestic use),
and have found that it doesn't interfere with aging of up to at least 25
years.

I'm not a wine guy but I've been told that quite a lot
of American wine companies are moving toward offering
even decently high quality wines in boxes. I found
the idea intriguing, but I don't follow developments
in the wine world to any degree so I don't know if it's
true or not.