Corkmaster: the best wines with cork stoppers

How do you make a wine taste 15% more expensive? It’s simple. You put a cork in it. Not metaphorically. I’m not being rude. You literally put a cork in it.

We know this thanks to a series of experiments by Professor Martin Spence of Oxford University. He poured the same wine for two groups of people: one group who’d heard the ‘crunch’ of a screw cap, the other who’d heard the ‘pop’ of the cork. 

He then asked, ‘How much do you think this cost?’ The ‘pop’ group averaged 15% more.

So, Aldi’s rich and full Baron Amarillo Rioja Blanco (13%) costs only £7.19 in the shop, but feels like it’s worth £8.60 once you get it home and open it.

When you spend more, you get more back too. Aldi’s Specially Selected Greek Nemea Red (13%) might cost £9.99, but make sure everyone hears the pop and you’re serving an £11.50 bottle, with its juicy plum and sweet vanilla flavours perfect for a hearty supper.

So why don’t winemakers always use corks? In the 1990s, around one cork in 20 was tainted (‘corked’). It made the wine smell of wet cardboard, and many producers moved to screw caps. But today, scientists have effectively eliminated that problem, so corks and screw caps have similar failure rates of 0.5%.

Now, when you buy a bottle of Alain Grignon Reserve Carignan Vieilles Vignes, France 2023 (12.5%, £11.99) you get all the old vine raspberry fruit and spicy character you expect. And when you pull the cork on Waitrose & Partners Loved & Found Sousão (14%, £8.99) you get this unusual grape’s clear mulberry and cranberry fruit.

Sousão grapes come from Portugal, home of much of the world’s cork forests. And cork’s revival assures a home for countless rare species that live in them. Cork is also more sustainable than screw caps, and a lot more sustainable than plastic stoppers. 

Of course, you’ll need a corkscrew to open a delicious bottle of pear and citrus-scented Reyneke Organic Chenin Blanc (13.5%, £10.99). Or a treat like Château du Seuil Graves Blanc 2022 (13%, £17.99), one of my all-time favourite wines, layered with honeyed fruit and floral aromas.

The corkscrew’s earliest known mention was in the 9th century by Irish monk Sedulius Scottus: ‘Doth not the cork, redolent of balsam, Suffer the piercing of the iron corkscrew, Whence from the fissure floweth out a precious Drop of the liquor?’

According to research by retailer Lakeland, about 81% of Saga readers will have one, but only 27% of 18- to 24-year-olds. Hopefully, that is set to change. 

And the very opposite of my favourite corkscrew fact? When actor Hugh Williams appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs he chose a corkscrew as his luxury item – but no wine.