Wine snobs may never recover from the blow! Screw top bottles, once the symbol of cheap and not-so-cheerful wine, are taking over from the corked variety. Oddbins says 40% of its wines will have the screw-top next year and predicts many retailers will follow. According to Mr G Ramage, senior wine buyer, "Corks can taint wine. By using a screw-top bottle we are getting fresher wine, which is what everyone wants. We've actually started the move to screw-tops with our most expensive wines to prove this is a quality issue rather than a price one". Oddbins says 95% of its customers are happy to buy screw-top wines with only 2%, the traditionalists, insisting on a cork seal. A spokesman for rival Majestic Wine said, "We don't instruct our producers to transfer to screw caps but we are certainly encouraging them. There is an upward trend, and this is the way forward".
