The Screwcap

Adventures In Wine

When you're at a party and gingerly negotiating the free-for-all of bottles on the kitchen table, a rule of thumb might be to leave anything with a screwcap until about two in the morning, when you're past noticing and well beyond caring. Jason Yapp, however, would tell you, that the humble cap, perfunctory as it may seem, need be no indicator of quality. To that end, he regales David with a brief history of the Stelvin 'alternative wine closure' and caps it off with the thirst-quenching proof in the form of four suitably crowned offerings from Yapp Brothers. Cracking open what has effectively become a Yapp house wine, a lively, appley Chenin Blanc from Saumur, they crack on with a Reisling from Willems-Willems, which for all its fruitiness has no less 'vif.' Yapp's house red, with a label designed by David, is an easy access, drink-it-from-the-hip, Cabernet Franc, but it certainly wouldn't harm to pair it with cheese, a grill or even a stew. And last of all, a cracking good Crozes Hermitage from the esteemed family Graillot. For all its silky tanins and hedgerow scents, their newly-released Equinoxe 2017 is as ideal for forward drinking as it is forward-thinking, but do try and wait until lunchtime.