1-30 The Truth about Cork

Lots of people who aren't obsessed about wine have still heard the many arguements about real and synthetic corks. In fact many of my friends who claim to "not know anything about wine" have noted to me that they have heard that natural cork (the old kind) is endagered and that's why wineries are moving to fake (synthetic) corks. While there are reasons to use synthetic cork, I just found further evidence that the depleting the cork forests (which reside mostly in Spain and Portugal) is not the most relevant one.

First and foremost, the making of wine corks does not involve cutting the tree down. The cork is made from bark that is shaved off the tree and after a long process of seasoning and boiling, is pressed into the finished product. The bark can only be harvested every six years, which has increased the price of cork as wine demand has increased, but the trees are not endagered.

I found further substantiation for natural cork production in the latest Pottery Barn Catalog (of all places). On page 15 they advertise a set of wine related products made from natural cork. The marketing blurb accompanying the products says, "Natural Cork is completely sustainable...But what few know is that its harvest is actually good for the environment. The demand for cork products ensures that cork forests...are protected, which in turn helps fend off erosion and protect a vast network of diversity". I stand firm that using this information not similar to validating which movie star is pregnant by reading US weekly. I'm sure Pottery Barn went to a vaild effort to make sure the statements they have made are true.

So natural cork is sustainable and environmentally friendly. Natural cork also provides a way for some air to get in the bottle over time to assist in the aging process. Natural cork does, however, have one problem and its called TCA. TCA is cork taint. Its a fungus that can grow in any type of wood in a humid environment if TCA is present. This reaction is what has occured when someone says a wine is corked. Corked wines are a problem because they make the wine taste less than perfect (in extreme cases, like wet newspaper). The percentage of corked wine produced is highly disputed, but in my experience, the average consumer doesn't even know when they have come across a bottle. The highly educated (wine-snob) consumer that can detect the taint, can return the bottle to the store or restaurant where it was purchased, so it has little affect on the inidividual in the end (as long as you have another bottle on hand if you happened to have opened a corked one at home).

So with cork taint possibilities and natural cork prices rising, synthtetic cork does have its place in the wine world. As long as you do not plan to age the wine (store it with the hope that the tannins soften and the fruit mellows), synthetic corks are a very effective wine closure, as are screw caps. Both of these wine closures allow little to no air to get into wine, which as I mentioned earlier, is essential to the aging process. Synthetic corks are also recycleable, so make sure they make it into the right trash can, will ya!