Winery experiments with screw tops on premium wine

SAN FRANCISCO - PlumpJack Winery wants wine enthusiasts to get over the notion that screw tops are only for those cheap but potent beverages associated with streetcorner winos.

The luxury winery this weekend unveiled its 1997 Reserve Cabernet, which will hit the market in September in a bottle with a screw top. The price? A hefty $135 a bottle.

Gordon Getty, Bill Getty and Gavin Newsom, the co-owners of the PlumpJack Winery, believe the screw cap is a ''viable closure method'' for even the highest quality of wine.

And that's why the owners chose their finest cabernet for what they admit is an experiment.

''There's really no argument for the cork - except that it has given us beautiful results for hundreds of years,'' Gordon Getty said. ''But that doesn't mean you can't improve on it.''

The screw top, the PlumpJack owners say, will eliminate ''cork taint'' from traditional, corked bottles, which sometimes gives a musty taste to wine. It will also do away with the need to store bottles on their sides.

And no more of those pesky pieces of cork floating in your wine glass from improperly opened bottles.

Still, there's an unsophisticated stigma associated with screw tops on wine, they admit.

''Of course we have a mindset to confront,'' Gordon Getty said. ''That is why I decided on one of our finest wines. We're making a loud statement.''

Jon Fredrickson, an analyst with Gomberg, Fredrickson & Associates, said the screw top has been talked about for years as the best way to store and age wine, but tradition will likely get in the way of it becoming the industry standard.

''In restaurants, (PlumpJack's wine) is probably going to be pushing $300,'' he said. ''You can imagine the reaction of people who order it and don't realize it's got a screw cap.''

PlumpJack, a small winery located in the Napa Valley town of Oakville, will bottle about half of its 1997 Reserve Cabernet in traditional corked bottles. The other half, or about 12 barrels, will be bottled using the new screw tops.

The regular corked bottles of the cabernet will be sold for about $125.

The winery has its share of supporters. John Gillespie, president of the non-profit Wine Market Council, believes the screw cap is a good idea.

''If it gets people to open their eyes to say 'Hey, it's just wine, You don't need a sommelier to enjoy it,' then it's a good idea,'' said Gillespie, whose group is an industry association that aims to expand the U.S. market for wine.

PlumpJack's Bill Getty said he plans his own screw top-versus-cork challenge. He'll bring some bottles rafting the Grand Canyon, taking them from the cool water to the searing hot daytime temperatures, then open them around the campfire at night.

''It's not purely scientific,'' he said. ''But we see if there's any difference.''