Having just emerged, battle scarred though (sort of) sane, from the minefield that is first-time motherhood, I couldn’t help but ponder the parallels in the debates raging around new mothers and casual wine consumers alike. In the same way that the infinite expanse of words and opinions on the politics of birth and infant sleep and feeding overwhelm new mothers in the Information Age, I wonder: are ordinary wine consumers casualties of the war of words on the virtues and vices of closures? And if they’re not intimidated yet, are the wine industry and its opinion leaders headed in that direction? Utterances like ‘screw the cork’ (seen on the seals of our own Quagga Ridge wines) and ‘death of the cork,’ as employed by California’s Bonny Doon winery in the launch of their screwcapped range to the US wine media, sound somewhat totalitarian. In Bonny Doon’s instance the utterance was part of an entertaining and humorous media campaign, though my point remains: Could such absolutism be in the best interests of wine as a beverage category? Does it achieve what it intends to, i.e. to demystify wine and its allure? Or does it in fact accomplish the very opposite by alienating consumers who may not feel empowered in the presence of wine in the first instance? Keith O’Brien quotes Randall Grahm, winemaker at Bonny Doon, as admitting to ‘extreme PR tactics’ in the said launch. This leaves me baffled, perhaps naively. I thought what matters is the wine and not the publicity mileage achieved by sensational pay-off lines. Speaking of public relations, wine writers and producers alike have secured thousands of rands’ of editorial space by the public platform the screwcap camp has managed to, perhaps unwittingly, secure – from Robert Parker to Tyson Stelzer to Michel La Roche. In shorter supply are the personalities who have either openly supported natural cork (Jilly Goolden and Ed Sbragia of Beringer Blass) or publicly admitted to being doubtful of the screwcap when presented as the ultimate closure (Brian Croser has been quoted as saying red wines he himself has aged under screwcap taste 'tinny'). Others maintain the problem lies with the clumsy handling of sulphur dioxide in the winery, and not with the technology itself. Jancis Robinson, in an article entitled Will our grandchildren need a corkscrew? (published on jancisrobinson.com in June 2004), answers her own question in conclusion, having presented all sides of the issue, ‘…..we are far from throwing away our cork screws.’ New Zealand, widely acknowledged as the leader of the ‘screwcap crusaders’ as Jamie Goode puts it in a recent Harpers article, sealed 70% of its 2004 vintage with screwcap. This didn’t stop internationally revered winemaker John Hancock from Trinity Hill to go public late last year claiming his 2001 Chardonnay showed a ‘murkiness’ that resulted in him moving away from screwcaps entirely. ‘We still have problems with cork,’ Hancock said, and added, ‘All I know is that screwcaps are not the answer for us.’ Our own Bruce Jack deserves credit for more than his winemaking abilities. He brings a level-headedness to the debate mostly lacking in the contributions of other proponents on both sides of the divide. Flagstone’s policy lacks in self-interest and fanaticism, but makes good sense (now there’s a thought!). The closure ‘depends entirely on the customer and the market,’ Bruce told Peter May last year. My question is this: Once the debate has been stripped bare of self-interest, and all we’re left with are the facts, is it truly a case of either or? Yes, natural cork has an innate propensity for tainting wine with TCA. But just when the poor pleb of a wine consumer thought it is safe to accommodate screwcaps as a culturally acceptable and the preferred closure in terms of preserving wine quality, UK wine personality Jilly Goolden tells him in The Telegraph that ‘Screwcaps have no track record for storing wines. Nor are they a guarantee of quality. Like natural corks, screwcaps have also been found to contain corked wines.’ Conversely, WineBusiness.com reported recently of a study by Allen Hart, Southcorp's Research & Development Winemaker, that has proved ‘oxygen is not necessary’ for ageing bottled wine and that closures that allow zero to low permeability are the ideal seals for ageing both red and white wines, i.e. screwcaps. The said study was funded by the Australian Closure Fund - a scholarship of AU$ 6 000 initiated by Jeffrey Grosset of Clare Valley Riesling fame - and ‘supported’ by the Wine Press Club of New South Wales in conjunction with Auscap, a manufacturer of aluminium closures. Now what?! I hear consumers say, or is that scream? The closure debate, it seems, is fraught with personal agendas to such an extent that no sense is to be made of it, and the absolute truth is seldom to be found. Washington Post wine writer Michael Franz is a supporter of the screwcap cause, though cautioned the 260 delegates at the International Screwcap Symposium in Blenheim, New Zealand late last year. Mr. Franz said that most Americans are ‘uncomfortable’ with wine and warned that potential converts could be turned off the product if the closure debate rages on. The danger, according to Mr. Franz, is that wine could be perceived as being too complicated. My point exactly. Jane Lazare has said, ‘The only thing that seems eternal and natural in motherhood is ambivalence.’ With no melodrama intended, let us not have the same said of wine. Stop press! A press release issued on behalf of the American Society for Enology and Viticulture (ASEV) this week announced that the organisation's annual meeting scheduled for June will be entirely devoted to 'put science at the heart of the wine closure debate.' Dr. Roger Boulton, UC Davis enology professor is quoted as follows: 'At previous conferences everyone was asking what the single best closure is. We want to take a fundamentally different and scientific approach, which will demonstrate that there may be no single standard. Instead, we have to choose the closure best suited for the wine based on its style, probable lifetime and its chemistry.'