Cork 101- The basics on why wine with a conscience is sealed with a cork. The life cycle analysis of the three main wine bottle stopper types is sure to increase your level of interest in the venerable cork.
The above button opens a brochure on the basics of cork.
Cork is Culture.
Cork is the bark from a very highly adapted species of oak tree which is found primarily in the forests of Portugal and some neighboring countries. Some speculate that the ancient oak tree with the natural ability to regenerate its skin after wildfires was fittest to survive. Cork forests are protected by legislation and only grown organically. High demand for the raw materials harvested from these oaks causes more active stewardship and preservation of the trees. This is localized reverence for ecology fueled by economy.
The trees volunteer their bark to willing recipients who gladly relieve the tree of the portion which it can spare so that the tree can live to be shaved again in nine years. The cork forests are a very significant part of the ecology of our planet. Cork forests provide habitat and remove greenhouse gasses. The cork industry represents a tradition and is of utmost economic importance for Portugal. The laborers who harvest the cork are highly specialized and are some of the most highly compensated agriculture laborers in the world.
Cork is the bark from a very highly adapted species of oak tree which is found primarily in the forests of Portugal and some neighboring countries. Some speculate that the ancient oak tree with the natural ability to regenerate its skin after wildfires was fittest to survive. Cork forests are protected by legislation and only grown organically. High demand for the raw materials harvested from these oaks causes more active stewardship and preservation of the trees. This is localized reverence for ecology fueled by economy.
The trees volunteer their bark to willing recipients who gladly relieve the tree of the portion which it can spare so that the tree can live to be shaved again in nine years. The cork forests are a very significant part of the ecology of our planet. Cork forests provide habitat and remove greenhouse gasses. The cork industry represents a tradition and is of utmost economic importance for Portugal. The laborers who harvest the cork are highly specialized and are some of the most highly compensated agriculture laborers in the world.
Ecology
Regular stripping of the cork oak enhances its ability to absorb carbon dioxide. A stripped cork oak absorbs five times more CO2 while it replaces its lost bark. It is estimated that cork oak forests retain up to 14 million tons of carbon dioxide per year. Cork Oaks make a significant contribution in reduction of greenhouse gases, eliminating roughly 4.2% of global fossil fuel emissions.
Regular stripping of the cork oak enhances its ability to absorb carbon dioxide. A stripped cork oak absorbs five times more CO2 while it replaces its lost bark. It is estimated that cork oak forests retain up to 14 million tons of carbon dioxide per year. Cork Oaks make a significant contribution in reduction of greenhouse gases, eliminating roughly 4.2% of global fossil fuel emissions.
More Happy Stuff
Wineries where the environment is a consideration generally use a natural cork. Cork is natural, renewable, sustainable and recyclable. Cork manufacturing is among the greenest of industries. Amorim Cork, the largest cork manufacturer in the world, makes 65% of their electricity in- house by converting waste from the forest and factory floors to power.
Wineries where the environment is a consideration generally use a natural cork. Cork is natural, renewable, sustainable and recyclable. Cork manufacturing is among the greenest of industries. Amorim Cork, the largest cork manufacturer in the world, makes 65% of their electricity in- house by converting waste from the forest and factory floors to power.
Some History
Since Dom Perignon started using cork in the 1600's, the tradition of using cork as a wine stopper has been strong. Natural corks are the sustainable, recyclable, greener, traditional testament to quality and commitment to nature that high quality eco- conscious wines demand. Natural cork was largely uncontested as a closure for 300 years. And then people started talking about TCA.
What is TCA?
The taint typically associated with wine corks is TCA (2,4,6-trichloroanisole). Never mind that TCA is an unharmful (offensive to the nose and capable of spoiling a wine, but unharmful) compound. TCA is a randomly occurring, systemic condition within the cork oak tree itself. TCA can find its way into wine several ways. It is commonly associated with a TCA riddled cork.
Between 1999 and 2008, we saw the popularity of non- cork closures increase due to industry concerns about TCA. This was a little unfair for the cork. It was realized that barrels, boxes, shipping containers, floor drains, wooden beams, humidifiers, and any other place where dirt, natural wood fiber, moisture, and chlorine had met could harbor TCA.
Cork stoppers for wine and other bottled beverages are still preferred by the majority of manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers, and consumers. Cork's position as the closure of choice in wine was largely unthreatened until the identification of TCA in modern wines. TCA seemingly hit its peak around 1999. Cork was demonized and the witch hunt began. Dubious statistics about TCA contamination rates as high as 12% were popular to repeat. Corks bore the brunt for several years.
The real issue with TCA is two- fold. The beginner or below average wine lover will shout, "TCA!" over what might be "brett.", "VA.", or some other issue in a wine. Once trained, a neophyte nose can identify TCA. Professionals can spot it below the perceptible threshold for most. The real issue is that it can begin to harm the fruit in the nose or cause inconsistency between bottles under sensory analysis before the average nose can smell it. We know that the educated professional can site this as cause for concern. But please bear with me. This gets good.
How can TCA be natural if it requires Chlorine?
One theory about the natural existence of the chlorine required to make TCA available to cork tree bark in the wild is lightning. Lightning close to sea water could cleave the chlorine away from a salt molecule. Like I said, this is a theory. Examine the function of a swimming pool which has been converted to salt. It still has chlorine in it.
Lose the Bleach
Chlorine (the "C" in TCA) is a key component and all but the maverick or the uninformed have since barred chlorine from the winery. Chlorine has been barred from breweries for the same reason. And they don't use corks!
One Bad Apple
Interestingly, while the cork community scattered about in the early 2000's- frantically throwing capital at R&D, Quality Control, cork bark harvest and handling reform, and damage control the new numbers came out and everyone was barking about the real rate of TCA contamination being down around 7%. This was "too high" and the screw cap and it's ugly sister the plastic plug were on everyone's mind. It was just a wild coincidence that sales of peroxide and ozone started to go up dramatically for suppliers who sold them. Or was it? Suddenly the winemaking community was admitting that TCA was linked to sanitation practices in the winery; but still blamed TCA on the corks. Most significantly, the universal fear of TCA led to industry- wide reevaluation of sanitation in the winery. And even if there was an issue with a cork, you can bet that the winemakers were making sure that every other part of their process was sanitary. One could argue that the increased awareness of TCA in those dark days actually led to higher quality wines and better quality control for barrel makers who now carry TCA free certification.
The Educated Consumer
The consumers are the reason why any of us lucky enough to derive income from the wine industry have a job in the first place. And wine has a level of charm unrivaled by most beverages. It's no wonder that people dive into all things wine related when they connect with a wine on a personal level. Most wine lovers pour over any information they can find to become more knowledgeable for social and economic reasons. You want to be able to discuss wines. You want to be able to appreciate a truly great wine. You want to buy the right wines. You don't want to buy one and find out that it is spoiled, tainted, oxidized, or otherwise ruined. So the fear of TCA found fertile soil in the minds of many.
Naturally, people watch bad news. We slow down to rubberneck accidents, etc. Unfortunately, by the early 2000's, it became very cool in the wine crowd to be the first to proudly condemn a wine as "Corked" at a party or conference. Since the average consumer cannot identify TCA, "Corked Wine" was an overused term. I witnessed the use of this term in those situations more often than I could detect anything but extreme Brettanomyces or V.A. It seemed like there was some confusion and "Corked" was occasionally errantly used for any wine that was "off" or spoiled.
A bottle of wine is not "corked" unless the bottle contains wine that was ruined by a cork riddled with absorb-able TCA. The telltale smell is described as: Diminished fruit impression in the nose with an overbearing odor of wet cardboard, old basement, or rotten burlap. It is unmistakable when found.
Wine flaws are very unpleasant to discover. Generally poor sanitation in a winery, bad chemistry in the lab, and sloppy winemaking techniques in general can lead to flawed wines. Identifying wine flaws became a hobby for some. Many of the wine consumers of the world know a spoiled bottle when they open one. The truth is that few can actually identify a TCA tainted bottle. Average noses can find TCA in the bottle as low as 4 parts per trillion (PPT). Expert noses can find it at 2PPT or 1PPT. Wine quality will actually suffer at a TCA level as low as 2 parts per trillion, giving the impression of a poorly grown or made wine, often before a good smeller can say that TCA is implicated.
An interesting side note on the TCA discussion reminds me of the way a story gets blown grossly out of proportion from person to person. Bloggers, Sommeliers, Masters of Wine, salesman, Screwcap fans, and Ne'er Conformists alike seem to be at the end of the gossip line for the actual, modern percentage of corks responsible for introducing TCA into a wine. Rarely will a cognoscente submit that a barrel, a pallet, or a cardboard box with TCA may have been the guilty party in the winery.
I am especially sensitive to the topic of cork taint. So naturally, when I hear outdated and (even by historical standards) inflated figures, I typically request a source for the data and never get one. If you hear "less than one half of one percent of commercial grade corks being produced by the top cork producers today still have absorbable TCA", you might be talking to someone who knows. And you are.
REFORMATION
Since the mass hysteria and secular migration towards alternative closures, the cork industry at large has taken quality control and R&D to new levels. Prevention, controls, and corrections have made this a different world for the venerable cork.
Are we under 1% in commercial wines sealed by a cork with TCA now?
In my experience, yes. In the competition that I judged in February of 2013, one of the 135 wines I tried had TCA. It was not a customer of ours :-)
The Life of the Wine
Long term storage for quality wine demands a natural cork seal. Synthetic stoppers allow the most oxygen intrusion and the highest loss of SO2 over the life of the wine. As a winemaker, consider this. That alone is a reason to pause and reflect upon the viability of our Neutrocork as a lower cost, better sealing alternative to synthetics.
Screw caps allow the least of each of the above but completely arrest the development of the wine in the bottle and do not contribute positively to the wine as it ages. The micro- oxygenation of the wine and contact with that 24mm wide chunk of cork oak can actually flatter the wines that are designed for aging. The consumer will be flattered that the winery thought enough of them to invest in their closure as well.
Under one type of screw cap, reduction (the opposite of oxidation) becomes the issue. This demands a change in winemaking style for the die- hard screw cap fan. To me, the lack of sulfur dissipation can create an offensive nose for the sulfur sensitive and necessitate aggressive decanting. I ask that if you use screw caps, trust the closure and act accordingly to prevent reduction. Lose your fear of spoilage under that theoretically superior closure and stop putting the sulfur level so high at bottling. Having the level of free SO2 high enough for ten years under cork in a screw cap wine is as logical as wearing a parachute in a boat.
Please be careful in your research before committing to screw caps. It might be fun to know what level of copper in the wine was legal in the country where the screw caps have been so great for so long with no reduction in the wine. It could also prove to be more economical to subscribe to Nielsen than to switch away from corks? Don't fall for the bad rap. Your screw cap wine has to be transported and stored carefully, so as not to compromise its seal. Have you ever wondered how many cases of wine atop the one on the bottom it will take to destroy the threads on the cap? Compare that to the knowledge of cork- sealed wines recovered from shipwrecks in tact.
More Points Against the Screw Cap
Say it with me, "Carbon Footprint". Every time someone makes a ton of Aluminum, they make four tons of carbon. Also, Google Red Mud.
The Cockroach Theory
When there is one, there will be more. The story below is living proof that the trend away from corks is reversing. Some big names are making a very public move back to Mother Nature.
http://www.worldpackagingnews.com/2012/08/leading-winery-drops-screw-cap-for-cork/
Leading winery drops screw cap for corkwpn | August 21, 2012 | Comments (0)
Australia – Leading Barossa Valley winery Rusden Wines has decided to return to cork as its closure of preference following a five-year trial of screw caps which revealed persistent quality control issues. This is good news for world leading cork supplier Amorim, in the Australian market where screw cap has found wide adoption.
Amorim says “technical performance” is the winery’s chief reason for reverting to cork. The company refers to an article in Wine Business Magazine (July 2012), in which Rusden winemaker Christian Canute explained that the wines are hand-made and bottled without fining or filtration. He said under screw cap the wines tend to ‘sweat’ producing overly dominant reductive characters; he also said trade customers had been experiencing a great deal of bottle variation which doesn’t occur under cork.
Amorim reports it has experienced a return to cork by wineries in a number of key markets as well as the UK retail sector, for reasons that include technical and environmental benefits. “We believe wineries and major retailers are returning to cork because of consumer preference, vast improvements in the quality of cork, the emerging limitations of alternative closures and a growing awareness of cork’s environmental advantages,” said Amorim’s director of marketing and communication Carlos de Jesus.
In Australia, Amorim sells between 80 and 100 million cork stoppers annually, with its global total exceeding three billion.
Contributed by Lindy Hughson
Testimonials
«We decided to change to the natural cork stopper. It is a great sealant and
the fact that it is a natural product, is one of the main reasons we came
back to cork.»
Steve Rued,
Rutherford Wine Company, USA
«Our wines really are better with cork. They may not be perfect, but simply
taste better.»
Duncan Savage,
Cape Point Vineyards, South Africa
«We have gone back to using cork stoppers in quality wines. In the ten years during which we used screw caps, the quality of cork available has dramatically improved.»
Tony Bish,
Sacred Hill, New Zealand
«We decided to change to the natural cork stopper. It is a great sealant and
the fact that it is a natural product, is one of the main reasons we came
back to cork.»
Steve Rued,
Rutherford Wine Company, USA
«Our wines really are better with cork. They may not be perfect, but simply
taste better.»
Duncan Savage,
Cape Point Vineyards, South Africa
«We have gone back to using cork stoppers in quality wines. In the ten years during which we used screw caps, the quality of cork available has dramatically improved.»
Tony Bish,
Sacred Hill, New Zealand
I'm Not Tilting Windmills
Cork is Still the Number One Closure. 94% of American consumers surveyed prefer cork closures in wine (Nielsen). Can you afford to gamble on low- buck packaging? Isn't it hard enough to get people to buy wine from somewhere besides California? Why take the risk? Unless the wine costs under $9.00, the market share of people who consume wine somewhat regulary expect a cork. And even when it is a low priced wine, we sell something that looks like 100% natural cork for less than what a plastic plug costs. If you are not convinced yet to only buy or sell wine sealed with a natural, technical, agglomerated, or micro- agglomerated wine cork instead of a synthetic plug, a glass stopper, a plastic tear- off plug, or a screw cap please look at this study on carbon footprint of closures.
Cork is Still the Number One Closure. 94% of American consumers surveyed prefer cork closures in wine (Nielsen). Can you afford to gamble on low- buck packaging? Isn't it hard enough to get people to buy wine from somewhere besides California? Why take the risk? Unless the wine costs under $9.00, the market share of people who consume wine somewhat regulary expect a cork. And even when it is a low priced wine, we sell something that looks like 100% natural cork for less than what a plastic plug costs. If you are not convinced yet to only buy or sell wine sealed with a natural, technical, agglomerated, or micro- agglomerated wine cork instead of a synthetic plug, a glass stopper, a plastic tear- off plug, or a screw cap please look at this study on carbon footprint of closures.
I Think I've Made My Point
Scientific and industrial advances have dramatically decreased the risks associated with using natural wine corks while proving that it is still the most environmentally sound idea for a closure. If you respect tradition enough to use a bottle, please use a closure made from cork. Your wine, your customers, the 2.1 million hectares of cork forests, Mother Earth, Enotools, and Amorim Cork will thank you!
Joe Lutomske
Chief Blatherer,
ENOTOOLS.COM
Scientific and industrial advances have dramatically decreased the risks associated with using natural wine corks while proving that it is still the most environmentally sound idea for a closure. If you respect tradition enough to use a bottle, please use a closure made from cork. Your wine, your customers, the 2.1 million hectares of cork forests, Mother Earth, Enotools, and Amorim Cork will thank you!
Joe Lutomske
Chief Blatherer,
ENOTOOLS.COM