1.   Corkiness is found in both young and old wines, which is why some wineries now use only plastic corks.

2.   Faced with mass defections to plastic corks, the cork manufacturers have improved quality considerably.

3.   Pressure from the winemakers and the threat that they might switch to plastic corks brought about considerable improvement in quality.

4.   Plastic corks are free of TCA problems, but their critics say they lose elasticity over time and let in air.

5.   The manufacturers of plastic corks are not going to take the challenge lying down.

6.   The plastic cork and the screw top works just as well, if not better, than a cork.