Why screwcap wines are less popular in the USA?

Bob Hower says in another thread "it's been my observation that servers and waits-people (sp??) generally prefer to serve wines with corks. They say screw caps don't have the ritual elegance of corks and do detract from the wine presentation experience."

I was speaking to the winemaker/owner of a New Zealand winery about closures.

He sells his wines in NZ and exports to USA and Australia. Australia gets Zorks, USA gets DIAMs and New Zealand gets screwcaps.

He said the reason his US importers demanded cork closures was the wines went to restaurants.

"But NZ waiters don't have any problem serving screwcapped bottles," I remarked.

"Its all because of tips," he said. "In New Zealand you don't tip in restaurants. In the USA you do, and so wine-waiters there want to make a show of opening a bottle so as to demonstrate they are earning their tip."

Not a theory I'd heard of before.


Re waits-people, Bob, I like the South African term waitrons

[David M. Bueker]

I don't order much wine in restaurants anymore due to the costs, but in general the wait staff (doesn't waitron sound too much like matron) loves screw caps. They don't have to look like fools struggling with a dodgy cork & an inadequate cork screw.

make a show of opening a bottle so as to demonstrate they are earning their tip."

Maybe I'm out of touch but I can't imagine that customers really think waiters are earning their tip by turning a corkscrew either.. On this question of tipping, screwcap vs. cork doesn't seem like much of an issue.

I don't know that we've had a broad enough experience with screwcaps to know what a broad range of US consumers think of them. Much of the resistance is from the trade, who are worried what consumers will think.

Maybe it would take a major outlet to promote screwcaps, as happened with Tesco's in the UK.

Bob Hower says in another thread "it's been my observation that servers and waits-people (sp??) generally prefer to serve wines with corks. They say screw caps don't have the ritual elegance of corks and do detract from the wine presentation experience."

I was speaking to the winemaker/owner of a New Zealand winery about closures.

He sells his wines in NZ and exports to USA and Australia. Australia gets Zorks, USA gets DIAMs and New Zealand gets screwcaps.

He said the reason his US importers demanded cork closures was the wines went to restaurants.

"But NZ waiters don't have any problem serving screwcapped bottles," I remarked.

"Its all because of tips," he said. "In New Zealand you don't tip in restaurants. In the USA you do, and so wine-waiters there want to make a show of opening a bottle so as to demonstrate they are earning their tip."

Not a theory I'd heard of before.


Re waits-people, Bob, I like the South African term waitrons

Of course all this makes sense to me because I like corks, and I even add to the important restaurant ritual. I usually gracefully take over the cork removal job from anyone (often a young girl) who is uncomfortable with it, or demonstrates a split-cork accident about to happen with the longer Bordeaux cork being pulled at sideways.

I have a trick where I can leave the bottle on the middle of the table, and while remaining seated and laid back, with what looks like an effortless passover of my hands, magically remove the cork. It is a good ice breaker with the waitress.

Hey, first things first - let's convince the US to become the last country to move to the metric system. THEN we can worry about screwcaps!

Peter: I wouldn't agree with either of the statements/opinions. And I'm itb.

We recently made some changes from cork to screwcap, and we first went into the markets to talk to the major buyers---restaurant and resort buyers---to see if there would be any problem.

The major response: "Nope. What took you so long?"

We had no resistance whatsoever from either the buyers/deciders or the waitstaff. Just the opposite: several of the waitstaff said it made their jobs easier.

Not once did I hear any objection about it affecting tips.

don't get me started on tips. i'm tired of paying top dollar to US restaurants and then ALSO paying their staff for them. the result is that because i like to cook i purchase far more meals in france than i do in the US and get better service (so much for To Improve Performance) and pay less for what i get. how come i get professional service in france and don't even have to tip unless i wish to - which i try to remember to do on a smaller scale? if restaurants in the US had to pay a living wage, i hear it would be bad for business. nuts!

don't get me started on tips. i'm tired of paying top dollar to US restaurants and then ALSO paying their staff for them. the result is that because i like to cook i purchase far more meals in france than i do in the US and get better service (so much for To Improve Performance) and pay less for what i get. how come i get professional service in france and don't even have to tip unless i wish to - which i try to remember to do on a smaller scale? if restaurants in the US had to pay a living wage, i hear it would be bad for business. nuts!

I'm with you on this one, David. My wife and I rarely go out to dinner any more due to bad service, overly expensive wine and less than acceptable food. Our greatest "dining" pleasures come from local "haunts" where you can kick back and enjoy an innovative sandwich, soup, stew or brisket with a good beer and a good cup of coffee. Wine dinners are saved for friends at our, or their, house. But of course this has nothing to do with screwcap preferances . I like pulling a cork and we save and ,craftely?, re-use them. I've had very little corked wines in my wine drinking lifetime but if the opposition to screw caps is due to the lack of presentation perhaps a spin could be developed. I would love to see appropriate size glasses,doesn't have to be crystal, and a decanteur presented with a little flair....now we're talkin'.

Drew

I have seen no anecdotal evidence, and certainly no statistical evidence, to suggest that screwcapped wines are "less popular" in the U.S. I find it very difficult to believe that a server or sommelier at a restaurant would attempt to steer a customer toward a wine sealed with a cork in the hope that the result would be a larger tip.

I know a Spanish producer who seals with cork and screw cap for the US. Both. On the same bottle.

The wine is semi-sparkling so he wants a screwcap to seal.

The US on trade wants cork (he said)

I have seen no anecdotal evidence, and certainly no statistical evidence, to suggest that screwcapped wines are "less popular" in the U.S.

Surely less popular than New Zealand where 95% of all wines are closed with screwcap?

[David M. Bueker]

I have seen no anecdotal evidence, and certainly no statistical evidence, to suggest that screwcapped wines are "less popular" in the U.S.

Surely less popular than New Zealand where 95% of all wines are closed with screwcap?

If you are going to use NZ as the example then your question should not be about the USA, but rather the rest of the world.

enjoy an innovative sandwich

Out of curiosity, what kind of innovative sandwiches does this place offer?

I love sandwiches but so often find that commercial versions are the same riffs on the same themes. I don't eat meat so it is usually some sort of overdone vegetable medley or cliched and out of season tomato and mozzarella or humous or goat cheese and roasted vegetables, you get the idea. I really only get interesting ones at home.

[David M. Bueker]

So then Rahsaan - what constitutes an interesting, vegetarian sandwich?

Looking at the comments about tipping in this thread, I wonder if there is any correlation between people who like to tip and those who like corks. I love to tip big. (I think that comes from some kind of inferiority complex where a person tries to make amends or attempts to be liked – thought I would spare anyone the trouble of pointing that out. )

When my wife goes out of town, my tips sometimes go from 22% to 50%, and this would not feel as balanced if the waitress (always try to finagle a woman) was not engaged as one is when struggling with the cork and worrying what to do with it afterward, etc.

Tipping big is a way to immediately establish some degree of intimacy, as wrong as this will sound to most, if not all, people reading this. When I was a younger and dumber person, I expected a waitress would be offended by such largess, feeling that I was trying to “buy” her. But I have since learned that women like – maybe love – generosity in men more than almost everything else, save maybe intelligence, which won’t go far if the man is not also generous. When a waitress runs out into a zero degree parking lot, braving ice under foot, to bid a last minute good-bye, she is not reacting to the measly extra $20 or so in a pecuniary way, she is reacting to a form of inchoate love emanating from a display of generosity.

So all of this stuff – corks, generosity – and yes, grandeur, tie in together for me. I know that a lot of men, especially many PhDs and men’s men, couldn’t give a s—t about establishing intimacy with a waitress, if they were not also interested in taking it further. But I am kind of an aesthete, and I do.

So then Rahsaan - what constitutes an interesting, vegetarian sandwich?

I guess one big difference is that at home I can use better quality ingredients.

Beyond that, I can also use a broader range of cheeses besides just goat cheese, mozzarella, or godforbid soft provolone/american/swiss. Which seem to be the most popular options in most commercial sandwiches. For my sandwiches I'll use the full range of the cheese shop, depending on my mood.

I'll also use whatever vegetables are in season, which in winter means I'd rather have some nice roasted beets or sauteed kale than the limp pale tomatoes and industrially roasted red peppers that many commercial places feel obligated to serve.

Of course there are always exceptions and plenty of great sandwiches to buy in public. The trick is finding them!

[David M. Bueker]

Looking at the comments about tipping in this thread, I wonder if there is any correlation between people who like to tip and those who like corks.

I am a big tipper (over 20% for good service) and hate corks.

Getting back to the original subject (tho sandwiches are interesting) we have found the wait persons are extremely grateful when you show them how to elegantly and easily open a screwcap. It is the way Sue Courtney grafically demonstrated for us and the rest of you on the old page many years ago. Many bottles can be opened easily just by turning the cap with your fingers, but some have a very tightly sealed capsule. The best way of presentation for both is to wrap a white napkin around the bottle bolding the cap firmly through the napkin. Then turn the bottle until it opens. Sounds a lot like Champagne doesn't it?

I am curious as to who the winery is that uses 3 different closures depending on the market. I can only think of a few NZ wineries that use Diams here in the US. I am seeing more and more Diams all the time. I have now had about 70 wines under Diam with no problems. With natural cork I am still 10-11 % cork failure.

As there are something like 16 threads currently running for those seeking closure (or not) on closure, let's get back to those sandwiches . . .

Clearly, quality ingredients are key to the success of any sandwich, vegetarian or otherwise. But I think a particular challenge for vegetarian sandwiches is a binding agent that brings the whole package together. As Rahsaan notes, the uninspired fall back on the old standbys of balsamic vinegar and hummus. Now, hummus is pretty brilliant binding agent, but the problem is that many commercial sandwich makers treat it as some sort of vegetarian miracle whip, with instantly recognizable flavor and interchangibility being emphasized at the expense of tailoring its qualities to the other ingredients in the sandwich. Romesco sauce with the sweetness of grilled onions, olive paste with the right cheese and bitter greens, even chickpeas ground up with something that gives them verve with the crunch and cleanliness of a cucumber, these are the innovations that make vegetarian sandwiches interesting for me.

I am a big tipper (over 20% for good service) and hate corks.

Just curious, are you generous? What I am talking about, and you can't cover everything in every post, is generosity with grace: tipping for the sake of tipping, whether the service is worth a damn or not. That's where generosity comes in; in fact, it would be more generous if the person did not "deserve" it.

Total digression on the sandwich front - but Rahsaan have you had jibaritos? Might be a bit more interesting than the average sandwich - they do it using flattened green plantains instead of bread (my dad - who's a vegetarian - tried one for the first time when he visited Chicago last year when I was moving out and loved it - found it far better than most of the vegetarian options he normally gets in the US).

Total digression on the sandwich front - but Rahsaan have you had jibaritos? Might be a bit more interesting than the average sandwich - they do it using flattened green plantains instead of bread.

I have never heard of that but sounds promising. Thanks for adding a new word to my vocabulary!