Wine is a romantic drink. The romance of wine often extends to the bottle and its closure. Some believe that a romantic evening begins with the sound of the cork popping out of the bottle. Are all wine bottle closures equally quixotic?

We met a couple that certainly had different ideas of what indicated romance concerning wine bottles closures. Although the male was happy with a wine with a screw cap, the female refused to touch a wine that didn’t have the cork “pop” sound when opened. He continued to purchase wines with screw caps and simply opened them and then put in a cork so she could hear him removing it. Perhaps it’s the sound that conveys romance.

If sound is the important factor, then screw caps are less romantic than bottles with corks. But corks have their challenges. The first of which is removing the cork from the bottle. It isn’t very romantic to see someone struggling to remove the cork. A humorous commercial by Zork USA shows a man struggling to remove a cork. The force applied caused his arm to move backward making contact with his female companion and knocking her out. Romance for that evening was lost.

On rare occasions a bottle of wine with a cork closure will be corked. Depending on how badly the wine is corked, will dictate how much romance is lost due to the wine. A heavily corked wine can quickly ruin a romantic moment. It is important to note that the cork industry has made advances in cork closures over the past four years. A corked wine is more rare than it use to be.

Zork makes a plastic closure that is easy to remove by hand and has the accompanying “pop” sound. The sales of these closures are increasing.  Whether this closure will be considered romantic has yet to be seen.  From a distance, the closure looks like wax. Add some candlelight and listen for the “pop” sound.

Besides the wine, what makes a romantic evening has many variables. Perhaps it is a sound of opening a wine bottle. However I believe the wine will trump the sound or what closure is used.