The age-old question of whether wine tastes better from a cork or screw-cap may have finally been answered.
A study by Oxford University has found that people think wine tastes better when they hear the cork pop.
Jason Whitelaw opened Louis Champagne and Oyster Bar in central Christchurch earlier this year.
Since then the corks have been popping and the champagne flowing.
"We have a saying round here a party without champagne is just a meeting," says Mr Whitelaw, and he may just be onto a winner.
The Oxford study asked 140 participants to sample the same wine from two different bottles - one with a cork that popped and another with a screw top.
Asked to rate the wines on ambience, sound, aroma and sight, 113 of the participants preferred the wine with a cork.
Mr Whitelaw's not surprised.
"That would be that placebo effect of the sound of a cork popping. That's celebration, that's party time and away you go."
But Sir George Fistonich has been making wine for over 50 years and in 2001, he made his internationally recognised Villa Maria label 100 percent cork free.
He disputes the UK study's findings and says they wouldn't be in line with the way New Zealanders enjoy their wine.
"You'd have to have a complete change of the whole culture of how people pour wine and I don't think there's any truth in at all really," Sir George insists.
So it appears that taste and choice may well be in the eye of the wine holder.
Newshub.
