[Don Plumley]

From a vitner's perspective, it's not just a "proper storage" issue. Some percentage of corks are tainted with TCA and we go through stretches of corked wines that is sobering. In my own home, I poured hundreds of dollars of wine down the drain because of TCA taint. It sucks.

In general, supplies from Portugal are constrained and good quality corks are becoming absurdly expensive. But synthetic corks are not forecast to become common on premium bottles. There are also reports of oxidation problems with screw caps, so they are not a panacea either. Screwcaps work well with whites because they are rarely stored for very long. The jury is still out on high-end reds - Plumpjack has the kind of customer following that will put up with it. But in a restaurant or nice dinner setting, part of the joy of opening a bottle is removing the cork, smelling for taint, then pouring. Those are lost with both kinds of synthetic closures.

Composite corks - the particleboard of the cork world is an interesting choice for lower cost wines. The ones that Tobra mentioned with the solid cork caps are becoming more widely used - mostly from an expense and adversion to synthetic closure alternative.

But whatever the closure, drink more wine!