There is something romantic about a cork – a real cork, not the synthetic type. So, those of you who think I come off as a pompous ass, please, let me rant a bit.

20 years ago, when I was involved with the annual Business Class Wine Survey, which Eunice Fried and I started, we would tell airlines who supplied wine with screw tops, they need not apply. These were usually splits and not very good wines at all. But now, the better labels are producing wines with screw tops and top sommeliers are breathing a little easier. Here’s why – when they bring a $300 or $500 bottle of wine to a table, they cross their fingers, wondering will it be good, has it been “corked”, will it taste properly? But with a screw top, they are nearly assured that the wine has not been compromised by a poor seal and that damaging air has not spoiled the wine.

Now, wine comes in a bag and it is said to be quite good! No, no! This is not 1984, with a box of chardonnay in the fridge, but really good wine in a tube and inside the tube, in a bag.

Dominique Lafon, of Burgundy’s Domaine des Comtes Lafon, sommelier Daniel Johnnes and chef Daniel Boulud, both from New York, have created the product. I learned of this a couple of months ago while dining in Phildelphia at Rae. The collapsible bag inside the tube does not allow air to come inside as you remove the wine. The 750 mL retail for about $40, which is about $10 a bottle, very economical.

For me, however, a cork – a true cork – is all about the romance. Knowing how to cut the foil and removing the cork with a real cork remover. The chance that it might be bad is also part of the process – a test of one’s self, knowing and challenging the sommelier, having them taste it as well and either agree or disagree.

Recently, at a rather fine restaurant in Towson, MD called VIN, I ordered a bottle of Zinfandel. I tasted and then asked my wife to taste it without saying a word about my opinion. My wife said it tasted funny, effervescent. And, it was! We returned the bottle even though the manager did not agree. Two independent taste buds said no, this is not right. By the way, I seldom return a bottle of wine.

So, enough processing, enough packaging, enough mass production – give me a cork!

-Fran Gallagher, publisher and CEO