If you've been down the wine aisles lately, you may have noticed that twist-off caps are filling the shelves more and more. Your first thought may be to skip over any screw-top wines, because...well, aren't they for cheap wines? If you're not a hardcore wine enthusiast, then you might think just that, and for good reason.

Screw-tops are common for bulk wines, which are usually less expensive wines, so this may have caused the stigma. However, winemakers have been turning to screw-caps more often in recent years, even for high-end bottles. While cork has historically been the go-to method of sealing wine, is it the best method?

Cork verse screw-top has become quite the debate in recent years. Cork proponents argue that corks help age the wine, allowing a regulated flow of oxygen to help round out and express flavors. This Oxford study insists that corks are better for a surprising reason: hearing the 'pop' of the cork improves the perception of the taste of the wine.

On the flip side, this article makes the case for screw-tops. You don't have to worry about pieces of cork falling into your wine and you avoid the possibility of "cork taint". Screw-tops are obviously easier to open, and this method of sealing ensures no oxygen gets into the wine, which keeps young whites and reds crisp. Another positive is that screw-tops are cheaper for wineries, and thus you.

While exploring both sides of the argument, it seems like each side has good points, with the type of wine also being a variable. Bigger and fuller wines benefit from a little oxygen, so corks would be the wiser choice. Wines meant to be drunk young do better with screw-caps, which keep the oxygen out.

Whether you opt for cork or screw-top, you should absolutely, positively ignore the price of wine when making your decisions in the wine aisle. Pretty much every blind taste study ever conducted on the subject concluded the same thing; price has almost no bearing whatsoever on the taste or enjoyment of wine. In fact, one famous study actually found that the correlation between price and taste wasn’t just small, but negative. In other words, the blind taste testers reported enjoying the more expensive wines slightly less than cheaper wines.

Even more interesting, scientists confirmed in 2015 what most of us expected; wine taste better when we think it cost more, even if it doesn’t. Participants were told each wine sample they tried was a different price, but each sample really came from average priced bottles of wine (about $14). Yet, people consistently rated the wine samples that they thought were more expensive as better.  

Bottom line: don't judge a wine by how it's sealed (or it's price tag). It's what's inside that counts!