I have been wondering what the long term effects of screwcaps are, as I am sure many of you have. Last week at the Sommelier Summit, sponsored by Icon Estates, we did a blind tasting of 4 wines. One was a regular cork, one was a screwcap, one was a screwcap that was a little permeable and the fourth was the glass cap that they are starting to use in Germany and Austria. While the cork edged out the other wines in taste, the permeable screw cap was a very close second and I have to admit for the ability to avoid cork taint I definitely advocate the use of these new and improved screwcaps for the right type of wines. It was very interesting. The least tasty of the four was the plain airtight screwcap closure.