Wine-makers say "screw you" to cork.

"I think it's the greatest thing that ever happened to wine, short of glass," says Josh Wesson, owner and founder of the retail chain Best Cellars, of screwcap closures for wine. "With glass, we took a leap from amphorae and goat bladders. Now we're taking a leap from cork to screwcap. It's the next big and great thing."

Wesson is just one of an increasingly vocal group of screwcap supporters whose ranks include winemakers, retailers, sommeliers, chefs and food and beverage writers. Swiss winemakers have been sealing their white wines with screwcaps since the 1920's, and in recent years their colleagues in Germany, Austria, France, the United States, South Africa, Canada, New Zealand and Australia have also begun to replace the tradition-bound cork stopper in some or all of their offerings. Bonny Doon Vineyard, to mark the 2002 release of some 80,000 cases of its Big House White and Big House Red that had been bottled under screwcap, staged funerals for the cork in New York and San Francisco. No less than wine expert and writer Jancis Robinson delivered the eulogy at the New York event. After gently praising cork for "... your smoothness, your ineffable lightness of being ... and your incomparable squidginess," and promising that she'd "... continue to celebrate your charms," Robinson declared, "The great big supertanker SS Screwcap has set sail and there will be no turning back."

Screwcap devotees cite losses suffered through cork taint as the primary reason for the switch. It is estimated that anywhere from three to ten percent of bottles sealed with corks contain wine whose flavor and aroma have been adversely affected by 2,4,6-trichloroanisole, or TCA, a compound created by the interplay of a cork-borne fungus, the chlorine used to sanitize wine corks, and plant phenols. Although it is harmless if ingested by humans, TCA imparts a musty, wet cardboard smell and taste to the wine it affects. TCA is detectable in wine at concentrations as low as four parts per trillion, and although some wine drinkers are more sensitive to it than others, the taste and smell of a "corked" wine are as unforgettable as the disappointment a sommelier or host feels upon the discovery of a tainted bottle.

Sommelier Jean-Luc Le Du, late of New York's Daniel restaurant, is in full support of the screwcap revolution, saying, "For any industry in the world to knowingly function with a 10% failure rate--it's a very serious problem in the wine industry. This has been taken lightly for too many years." At Daniel, Le Du says that he would return nearly fifty bottles of wine per month to winemakers because of cork taint, and asserts, "It's a waste of time and money for everybody. Maybe it doesn't break your heart when it's a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau, but maybe it does if it's a 1982 Chateau Latour." At press time, Le Du is preparing to open a retail wine shop in New York, and says that he'll stock screwcap-sealed wines from New Zealand, Australia, France and Austria.

The problem of random oxidation under cork, especially for white wines, is another reason for the screwcap revolution, says Tony Jordan, CEO and winemaker for Cape Mentelle, Cloudy Bay and Green Point wineries, all in Australia. The entire range of Cloudy Bay wines is now packaged under screwcap, and Jordan reports an elimination of this maddening problem, as well as the end of boutle variation.

Jordan explains, "If a dozen wines under cork are cellared for, say, two years and then tasted, there will be quite a variation between the bottles because some may be tainted but others will be advanced in their aging, because there has been some ingression of oxygen." And while some oxygen seepage across a cork barrier can contribute positively to a cellared wine's flavor profile, Steve Smith, wine and viticulture director of Craggy Range Winery in New Zeland says, "The issue is that you can't really know how much oxygen crosses any given cork barrier. It can vary 1000% from cork to cork. So while I have no doubt in my mind that complex, full-bodied red and white wines need some oxygen to age, the question is how much. The ideal situation would be a technology that would allow us to infuse tiny amounts of oxygen into wines under screwcap at any point in the aging process."

For some wine professionals, the issue is with the cork industry itself, which they say has been slow to provide a solution to the TCA problem. "In the mid-90's, I got burned by a cork company who wouldn't admit to their poor quality cork, despite the lab-generated evidence we provided," says Rollin Soles, co-founder and winemaker for Argyle Winery in Oregon's Willamette Valley. "Also, we found that when we ordered one lot of cork, chosen for its quality, we got delivered a different lot. I feel strongly about the integrity of my winemaking, and I'm not so sure I can say the same about the cork business." In her eulogy, Robinson remarked, "The cork vendors ... may have banded together for the first time in their monopolistic lives to employ wondrous tricks and stupendous advertising budgets ... but all this effort on the part of the cork industry will be to no avail," going on to note that, while world wine demand increases by factors of ten every year," ... the total area of cork forest in Iberia is growing at a rate of four percent per annum," nullifying cork producers' argument for their environmentally-friendly product. In their defense, some cork manufacturers have investigated ways to prevent and remove TCA infestation in their product, but many see it as a case of too little, too late. According to plant biologist and wine writer Jamie Goode, "The cork industry currently looks a bit like a dinosaur watching the meteor impact that occurred at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary 65 million years ago."

Finally, screwcap proponents point out the potentially alienating properties of a natural or plastic cork closure. Says Wesson, "Unlike wine bottles with corks, screwcaps require no special tool. I can't think of another consumer product that requires a third-party device. Half of U.S. households don't even own corkscrews, and to sell a product that presumes ownership of a corkscrew is problematic in the extreme."

Of course, not every hospitality professional is ready to ditch the cork for the screwcap, with chefs in particular expressing reluctance. Vincent Francoual, chef and owner of Minneapolis' Vincent restaurant, stands in opposition to the demise of cork closures. "It's not about opening a cork," he explains. "I can get over that. It's that we are starting to want to control too much. Winemaking already has so much control, and this is just another step toward that. I'm a firm believer in letting nature do its job." Francoual likens screwcap technology to the rise of genetically-engineered produce, and adds, "I do believe that a quality cork helps the wine to age. [Screwcap enthusiasts] try to tell me these scientific reasons, but I am a traditionalist when it comes to food and wine. It has worked for the last 2000 years, so why should we change it now?" Andy Nusser, chef and co-owner of Casa Mono in New York, agrees with Francoual, saying, "If you do a blind tasting of the same wine, aged under screwcap and cork, there's going to be a subtle difference in the flavor. Isn't wine all about subtleties? I grew up seeing my parents' jug of cheap wine with a twist-off cap on the kitchen counter. That connotation is going to be inevitable when Joe Public walks into a high caliber restaurant and sees the screwcap on his high-priced bottle of wine. It reminds me of The Muppet Movie, when Kermit and Miss Piggy are on their big romantic date, and Steve Martin, their waiter, rolls his eyes when he sees what wine they've chosen, and says, 'Do you care to smell the bottle cap?"

For the braised veal cheeks: Heat oil in saute pan over medium-high heat. Season cheeks with salt and pepper and sear on all sides. Remove cheeks, lower heat and add onions, leeks, carrots and garlic and cook until vegetables begin to brown. Stir in wine and reduce until almost dry. Add veal stock and reduce by one-third. Transfer cheeks to Cryovac[R] bag, strain cooking liquid and pour into bag to cover cheeks. Vacuum seal bag so that it is medium-tight around meat. Set up immersion circulator according to manufacturer's instructions and bring water to 158 degrees. Place bag in water and cook 48 hours. Remove cheeks from bag and refrigerate until ready to use. Note: recipe makes more than needed for spring rolls.

For the mackerel tartare: In saucepan, warm cream and peppercorns over low heat, remove from heat and let sit two hours at room temperature. Strain through fine-mesh sieve and transfer cream to Thermomix[R] machine. Add yolks, 1/4 cup sugar, stabilizer, glucose and bananas. Set Thermomix[R] to 180 degrees and puree 12 minutes on number five setting. Strain through fine-mesh sieve, transfer to Pacojet beaker and freeze 24 hours. Just before serving, transfer to Pacojet[R] and process ice cream according to manufacturer's instructions. In bowl, whisk together horseradish, vinegar, grapeseed oil, salt and remaining sugar. In separate bowl, combine mackerel, pine nuts, juice, olive oil, 1 teaspoon chives and season with salt and pepper. Line ring mold with overlapping banana slices and fill with mackerel mixture. Unmold onto plate, top with caviar and quenelle of ice cream, and drizzle with horseradish vinaigrette. Drizzle chive oil over vinaigrette and garnish with chives.

For the hamachi tartare: In saucepan, combine oil and chilis and cook over low heat 45 minutes. Strain through fine-mesh sieve and let cool to room temperature. In bowl, combine apple with fennel, pea shoots, candied yuzu and salt to taste. Toss with two tablespoons yuzu juice and one tablespoon chili oil from above. Arrange hamachi slices on plate, drizzle with remaining yuzu juice and small amount of chili oil, reserving remainder for tuna tartare, and season with sea salt. Top tartare with salad and garnish with microherbs.

For the tuna tartare: Place cream in bowl. Squeeze excess water from gelatin and add to cream while whisking to soft peaks. Fold in passionfruit puree and caviar. In separate bowl, combine tuna, garlic, ginger, chives, mint, kecap manis, soy sauce, oil and Tabasco[R]. Season with salt and pepper. Arrange cucumber slices on plate. Transfer tuna to ring mold and unmold atop cucumbers. Top with seaweed salad and quenelle of passionfruit cream. Dot plate with chili oil and garnish with dill.

For the steak tartare: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Pour gelee on small plate and refrigerate until ready to serve. In saute pan, heat butter until it foams and subsides and cook leeks until soft. Add cheeks and cream, simmer five minutes and let cool at room temperature. Brush plantain slices with clarified butter, season with salt and pepper and place small amount of cheek mixture on plantains. Roll each to form spring roll shapes. Transfer to sheet pan and bake in oven until golden brown, about ten minutes. In bowl, combine steak, capers, cornichons, shallots, garlic, mint, Worcestershire, ketchup, mustard, 1 teaspoon kecap manis and egg and season with salt and pepper. Form beef mixture into quenelles and chill. Transfer beef to chilled plate, top with spring roll and garnish with parsley and remaining kecap manis.