NATURAL CORKS: ARE THEY NECESSARY?
As I said in the Vino by Gino Story, from time to time I intend to address an issue related to wine as well as discussing various types of wine. My first issue is that of corks. Are natural corks necessary or desirable? What are the alternatives?
First a brief primer on natural corks. Natural corks come mostly from the Mediterranean region, where the cork oak tree grows. Portugal (52%) and Spain (32%) account for the vast majority of cork production, according to the Natural Cork Quality Council web site (www.corkqc.com). The production of natural cork is growing, with cork oak forests increasing by 120,000 hectares (nearly 300,000 acres) in Portugal and Spain to a worldwide total of 2,200,000 hectares (about 5.4 million acres). The web site explains that cork is used in a variety of products but corks for wine bottles account for 15% of production and two-thirds of revenues for the industry.
Cork is produced from cork oak trees in a manner that promotes healthy growth and sustainability. According to the Cork Quality Council, cork is not taken from a tree until it is at least 25 years old and cork for wine stoppers must wait until the tree is 40 years old, and the trees can last more than 200 years.
A traditional cork is great for sealing bottles because of its elasticity and durability. It is impervious to water and can seal a bottle for 100 years or more. They are also easy to extract.
So if corks are so great, what is the problem? The problem is cork taint. Cork taint is the result of a chemical called TCA that results from the action of molds that are found naturally in cork tree bark. Most of the mold is removed during processing, but traces can remain and it reacts with traces of chlorine used to clean and disinfect the cork. The mold is invisible and impossible to detect. The result is a tainted wine that smells and tastes bad (www.thewineman.com).
In an article for MSNBC published on September 10, 2003, Jon Bonne, writes about a company in Kent, Washington called Supreme Corq. This company is likely the world’s largest maker of synthetic corks (or closures, as they call them), with about 40% of the market. The company makes its “closures" from a “biomedical grade thermoplastic elastomer.” Bonne states that synthetics are a small but growing segment of the market, about 9%. He says that the market share for natural corks may have dropped below 50%.
While there is concern about cork taint, consumers generally prefer natural cork. As Bonne explains, it is not so much that wineries prefer natural corks because they are elegant and traditional, it is that consumers perceive them as elegant and traditional.
Personally, I have rarely encountered a wine that I believed suffered from cork taint. Of course, I may have just thought I was drinking bad wine! Natural corks are a significant part of the ritual of drinking wine. Synthetic cork is a fairly decent substitute.
James Laube, a senior editor for Wine Spectator writes in the March 31, 2006 issue that his preference is the screw cap. He has had many negative experiences with cork taint. He also reports that “the mood is changing” and that more twist-off caps are appearing on the market, and they appear to be gaining momentum. He speculates that in 2 or 3 years it may not be remarkable that any particular wine appears with a screw cap.
What do you think?
First a brief primer on natural corks. Natural corks come mostly from the Mediterranean region, where the cork oak tree grows. Portugal (52%) and Spain (32%) account for the vast majority of cork production, according to the Natural Cork Quality Council web site (www.corkqc.com). The production of natural cork is growing, with cork oak forests increasing by 120,000 hectares (nearly 300,000 acres) in Portugal and Spain to a worldwide total of 2,200,000 hectares (about 5.4 million acres). The web site explains that cork is used in a variety of products but corks for wine bottles account for 15% of production and two-thirds of revenues for the industry.
Cork is produced from cork oak trees in a manner that promotes healthy growth and sustainability. According to the Cork Quality Council, cork is not taken from a tree until it is at least 25 years old and cork for wine stoppers must wait until the tree is 40 years old, and the trees can last more than 200 years.
A traditional cork is great for sealing bottles because of its elasticity and durability. It is impervious to water and can seal a bottle for 100 years or more. They are also easy to extract.
So if corks are so great, what is the problem? The problem is cork taint. Cork taint is the result of a chemical called TCA that results from the action of molds that are found naturally in cork tree bark. Most of the mold is removed during processing, but traces can remain and it reacts with traces of chlorine used to clean and disinfect the cork. The mold is invisible and impossible to detect. The result is a tainted wine that smells and tastes bad (www.thewineman.com).
In an article for MSNBC published on September 10, 2003, Jon Bonne, writes about a company in Kent, Washington called Supreme Corq. This company is likely the world’s largest maker of synthetic corks (or closures, as they call them), with about 40% of the market. The company makes its “closures" from a “biomedical grade thermoplastic elastomer.” Bonne states that synthetics are a small but growing segment of the market, about 9%. He says that the market share for natural corks may have dropped below 50%.
While there is concern about cork taint, consumers generally prefer natural cork. As Bonne explains, it is not so much that wineries prefer natural corks because they are elegant and traditional, it is that consumers perceive them as elegant and traditional.
Personally, I have rarely encountered a wine that I believed suffered from cork taint. Of course, I may have just thought I was drinking bad wine! Natural corks are a significant part of the ritual of drinking wine. Synthetic cork is a fairly decent substitute.
James Laube, a senior editor for Wine Spectator writes in the March 31, 2006 issue that his preference is the screw cap. He has had many negative experiences with cork taint. He also reports that “the mood is changing” and that more twist-off caps are appearing on the market, and they appear to be gaining momentum. He speculates that in 2 or 3 years it may not be remarkable that any particular wine appears with a screw cap.
What do you think?
posted by Gino at
9:47 PM
2 Comments:
Will it become like soda; bland plastic and aluminium cans, with a national memory of glass bottles? It might just be the packaging but it's better in glass. Wine needs a natural cork.
By
Anonymous, at April 06, 2006 8:43 AM
I agree. Its not the function, but the form that is mmost important in this instance. The primary goal should be to find a way to stop the mold that causes cork taint. Then we can continue to use the traditional, sustainable, highly functional cork that been associated with wine for hundreds of years. I would not want to switch to a nonrenewable "thernoplastic."
By
Gino, at April 06, 2006 7:26 PM
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