Cheap screw?

....apparently not. Dave and I would like to think that we are wine connoisseurs, of sorts.

 Until now, we have had this perception that cork wine bottles are higher quality, more expensive, and just plain BETTER than those with a screw top. When I see a screw top, I instantly think of Sutter Home or good ole Boones Farm (what I thought was real wine when I was 21).  HA!

So on our last trip to BevMo in search of some nice wines to add to our mix, I noticed that each time I reached for a nice looking wine, it was a freakin screw cap....

What. The. Heck?

In my head I'm thinking, "i can't serve that!!!...nor would I want to give it as a gift to someone because God knows everyone thinks wines with screw caps are cheap!!!"  :-) And by everyone, i mean me.  So I decided to ask the experts they so diligently employ at BevMo to please explain to me why decent looking wines (even those at not-so-cheap-prices) have screw caps???

To my surprise (and honestly, I was a little disappointed) he informed me that the cork trees (in some country I can't remember), that corks are made from, are becoming extinct and that more and more wineries are turning to screw caps on their wines. He continued to school me on the fact that the purpose of the cork is for people who keep their wine for like a month (who's that?) and that if people plan on drinking their bottle within a day or two (um...hello....yes, that's us) then the cork serves no purpose and a screw cap will suffice. Well, this blew me away because now I have to change my mindset on the fact that a screw capped bottle of wine is not cheap. I know change is good...but it takes me a while to adjust. Besides, there's just something rustic and ritualistic about opening a bottle of wine that has a cork.

Now, I just hope all my friends read this so when I give them a bottle of wine as a gift and it's a screw cap, they will understand that it's more valuable than a bottle of two-buck-chuck...puh-lease. :)