When I order my bottle of wine in a restaurant, it lately tends to arrive at my table closed with a screw cap. This seems to have become a common occurrence.

I have nothing against screw caps, in fact, they are a positive thing for certain wines, although the grating noise of opening the cap cannot be compared to the almost sensuous sound of the easing out of a cork. However, what is really annoying, especially when you have ordered a red wine, is when the waiter screws the lid back on after they have opened it; very often without you noticing. This has happened to me a few times in recent weeks.

So, if you like to order your full-bodied red wine as soon as you sit down so that the wine gets a good 45 minutes to breathe, when you come to pour it, you realise that it is just the same as when it was brought to you: closed up and often overly tannic!

So I kindly ask all wine waiters a simple request: just treat red wine bottles with a screw cap like any red wine. You would not dream of taking the cork out for a customer once they have ordered a wine and then ramming it back in once they have approved it.

The same goes for the screw cap: the wine still needs to breathe, open up and soften and it cannot do that if you have screwed the top back on.