I frequent another online 'foodie' board that has a section devoted to wine. Our own Hunt also can be found there.
A recent topic on that board includes a post, from someone who seems to have a reasonable depth of wine knowledge, supporting the 'theory' that the extent to which the bottle aging of wine is a function of gasses passing through the cork is of little consequence if any at all. He cites three or four sources, from Hugh Johnson to Jamie Goode to an expert at UCDavis, in support of the theory that (if I'm understanding correctly) whatever aeration of wine causes it to mature in the bottle occurs during the bottling itself and not later on. One quote is from Richard Gibson (I presume the one who is head of SouthCorp/Penfolds) who told the poster that "I am inclined to think that bottle maturation is essentially anaerobic".
In fairness to the poster, his main objective was (I think) to support stelvin closures through the logic that cork really doesn't 'do anything' anyway, so don't get upset about screwtops.
What do you guys think? Is all the debate about the role of cork closures in 'better wine maturation' just meaningless? I have to admit that I find this pretty hard to get behind, based on years and years of being taught the opposite.