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Cork Shortage?
The local wine experts that I've talked to have said that the main reason wineries are switching to plastic corks and screw caps is because regular cork is being found to give off flavors. He told me there isn't a shortage of cork nor is it because the corks dry out or tear apart, or leak. He told me that all corks are sealed with wax or some other substance and that the wax on the corks do a pretty good job of preventing those problems. It's just easier to have a plastic cork or a screw cap then have to worry about declining quality of corks being made and how much off flavor the waxes used to seal the cork is going give the wine.
mcginnis842 wrote:
The local wine experts that I've talked to have said that the main reason wineries are switching to plastic corks and screw caps is because regular cork is being found to give off flavors.
I saw the same thing on a television interview awhile back. Much less chance of spoilage with plastic corks and screw caps. I've had many such sealed bottles, and although I'm by far not a wine connoiseur, I thought they were just as good as their natural corked counterparts. The plus side of the screw tops for me is the ease of resealing.
Cork, cork, cork.
A six hundred year old romanticism.
Damn good, considering.
But... There is a reason a spoiled bottle may be refed to as "corked"
Plastic can be good or bad depending on the plastic.
Without going into the chemistry of leachates and phenolic residues, just BELIEVE that a wine industry that has validated wine glass shape for umpteen different varietals, wine types, ages and regional variations has spent a lot of time looking for infinetessmally subtle, possible, or even halucinated corruptions in colour, nose, bouquet, palate or aftertaste in their livelihood resulting from substitution of an organic closure device with a petrochemical derivative.
Remember, their livelihood depends, in not inconsequential degree, on mystique.
While living in Germany in the mid '80's, The Germans were already on board from a technical perspective, but cork was cheap, still of reasonable quantity and the market liked corks. "Das ist genug!"
The French were still making everything the way granddad did cuz' that's the way it is supposed to be. "Que peut-on dire?"
The Spanish were just digging out of the dark ages, having just started to enjoy those amazing EUC subsidies that have revolutionized the countries archaic fermentation and storage issues. "Duhh"
The Aussies were just about to hit the big time and they liked plastic. They also knew that fewer than 10% ( way fewer actually) of the "corked" bottles were reported, that plastic was seen kinda like an upgraded screw top and that there was still fairly cheap, fairly good cork to be had. "Blimey mate, it may be broke, but we ain't swimming in a croc hole".
Well time flies like a banana but it does fly.
Cork is less available, of inferior quality and at an increased price. Very conservatively, 1 in 24 bottles filled and plugged is "corked", spoiled, dead as a parrot, not revivable and gone when the cork is inserted.
It is of little effect if drunk in under 3 months (phttthhht!!) but if you haven't finished carving the Thanksgiving turkey, opened a 15 year old St Emilion Grand Cru classe level bottle and experienced the bitter pain of a dead."corked" bottle, wel,l,, you haven't lived!
This can't happen with Plastic.
The verdict is in. Cork sucks. Not big time but it sucks in any comparison that doesn't give big points to the aesthetics of touch (with cork as the gold standard).
Plastic rules. Only you and I, as yet can't afford it cuz you need a lot of users to justify marketting in volumes of one or two hundred plastic corks. Well we can, but a lot of the home wine market makes wine on a cost basis of - Wine for $4 a bottle?!!!
They don't want to spend $4.06/unit. AND they will keep those extra 40 corks for an entire year and use them next year to save $6.
Sh,,,,,,,and you wonder why plastic hasn't "caught on"?
Well in closing - more sacrilege- and mark my words for the future.
Sexy? Ritual? Tradition?
Screw tops are the current best form of closure available to the industry. The cheapest, most secure, with the lowest failure rate of any, including boxes.
and are reclosable.
Screw tops will, someday Dorothy, RULE.
Think about it.
Post a thought out rebuttal and let the arguments fly.
Biss
PS this forum needs a spell checker - or have I missed it?
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