I would like to share with you this surprising article from today's BBC:
The World Wildlife Fund is warning that many parts of the Mediterranean are facing an environmental crisis as wine makers stop using traditional cork stoppers for their wine bottles, and have begun to use plastic and screw-top alternatives instead.
The wildlife organisation says that harvesting cork does not cause any damage to the forests, but if demand for cork goes down, it could threaten local wildlife.
More than 17 billion cork stoppers are made for the wine industry each year - but not a single tree gets harmed in the process.
Contrary to popular belief, harvesting cork is 100% environmentally friendly, leaving the forest and its wildlife intact.
But recently, wine growers have begun to opt for synthetic plastic and screw top stoppers for their bottles, meaning demand for cork has slumped.
It has prompted local people either to leave the countryside, or, in a bid to find alternative incomes, to cut down the forests and plant more profitable crops.
Many of these new plants however take too many nutrients from the soil, causing widespread ecological damage.
The WWF warns that if the cork forests of the Mediterranean are not properly managed, they will eventually become deserts.
That would risk the survival of local wildlife, particularly the Iberian lynx, whose numbers have already dwindled to just 150.
The wildlife organisation fears that more than 30% of the wine bottle market will soon be using plastic seals. If this does happen, it says, then the forests of the Mediterranean will simply disappear.
Zak - that was really interesting. I just opened a couple of bottles here at home (both Italian) and both had plastic "corks". I had a case of Fonterutoli which is a relatively expensive and respected winemaker (albeit I only had the Badiola) and they also used vile-coloured orange plastic stoppers. Thye probably are technically "better" than corks but somehow they seem to spoil the experience although that's probably me just getting old.
This is an interesting article, Zak - thanks for posting. I'd always heard that it took 100 years to grow a cork tree, and that they 'were running out of cork,' hence the switch to rubber/plastic corks. Hmmm.
Colleen in California
Posts: 14281 | Location: The Beautiful San Francisco Bay Area | Registered: 06 August 2001
quote:Originally posted by Colleen: I'd always heard that it took 100 years to grow a cork tree, and that they 'were running out of cork,' hence the switch to rubber/plastic corks. Hmmm.
Colleen in California
A nice marketing ploy by the folks that bring you plastic corks.
I seem to remember at at some stage demand for massive amounts of cork for the soles of platform shoes meant that the winemakers were left with the poorer quality cork. That was the first time they began experimenting with other materials to "cork" their wine.
Posts: 893 | Location: Sydney, Australia | Registered: 20 January 2002
This is interesting. I did a bit of searching on the web and it seems like the main reason to switch to plastic has been more an issue of quality and cost. There is less of a chance of wine becoming 'musty' or 'corked' with plastic. It is also less expensive.
There are other usages for cork such as flooring. Because cork is a renewable resource, it is sometimes considered a eco-friendly building material. This article gives an overview of how cork is harvested along with some of the non-eco friendly issues with cork flooring.
Marta
Posts: 7483 | Location: Edmonds, WA | Registered: 25 October 2001
here is a foto of a cork oak tree in Sardegna. They only harvest 1/2 the tree at a time. I think it takes 10 years to replace the cork taken away. But the trees are not damaged and they keep producing!
I have a friend who is an architect specializing in non-toxic construction (she even wrote a book about it - www.bakerlaporte.com ). She uses cork for flooring as an alternative to the more toxic wall-to-wall carpeting. It looks and feels lovely on the floor.
There is a bacteria that lives naturally in cork that can impart an off odor to the wine. This is called corked, although it is not the cork itself that gives the wine its off odor. All cork had the bacteria but it only gives off an aroma in a small percentage of bottles. How small is open to debate. Some claim that 8-10% of wines are corked. I find that hard to believe.
At professional wine judgings, usually three samples of a wine are submitted. The first one is for sampling and then second is in case the first is corked. Many years ago I was a judge at a wine fair. We tasted 140 wines over 2 days. We did not come across one bottle that was corked. I drink about 200 bottles a year and only one or two are corked. Corked wines are recognizable by the wet dog aroma they ahve. Most wines with a musty smell are actually much more likely to be badly made than corked. If two bottles of the same wine have a musty odor, it is likely that the wine had a wine making or handling problem. Corked aromas are totally random and do not run in batches.
Many winemakers are going to plastic enclosure because it is getting harder and harder to get high quality corks free of defects and splits. These imprefections will ruin a wine as they can allow oxygen into the wine. But we dont know what happend with a plastic enclosure after 20 years with the wine.
One modern alternative to the orange plastic enclosure is a cork and plastic blend. Ground cork is mixed with plastics and formed into closures. They are more cork like in feel but still seem out of place in the bottle. But then I am old fashioned enough to prefer my vinal LP's.
There are not enough wines that have been aged for long periods of time to know if cork plays a roll int he aging of wine. Some people claim that corks breathe and that this is a part of the aging process but its not supported by experiment. Corks are almost a perfect enclosure that keeps wine air free. It is only temperature abuse and leaks in the cork that draws air into a wine.
Cork does not last forever. After 20 years int he bottle, corks begin to deteriorate. They get soft a crumbly. They become hard to pull without leaving bits in the wine.
A very good friend of mine sold aluminum sealing products before he became a wine maker. He thinks the future lies with an aluminum closure that can be heat rolled onto a bottle. The seal is renewable and should last for 20 years with no leaking. Pull tab wines? :eek
If life is an opera by Puccini... I want to be Calaf!
Posts: 4612 | Location: Casa del Fenicottero Rosa, Silver Spring, MD USA | Registered: 06 August 2002
Caro Zac, the only thing to age good wines is to use cork. Maybe they should use plastic for normal wines and good cork only for the best. Could you think about a fantastic Barolo, Brunello or Nobile di Montepulciano (I bought 18 bottles last week) with plastic. Mai, not on my table.
Many, Many years ago I started with screw top bottles of wine, probably a lot of people did. So, now after all these years its back to screw tops? At lease you can re-close tghe bottle.
Daniel and Priscilla in Fort Lauderdale
Posts: 634 | Location: South Florida | Registered: 25 July 2001
Maybe it's just my lack of coordination, but I always seem to have problems opening the plastic corks...the corkscrew gets stuck, and I have a heck of a time getting it out! Altho I'm not normally a traditionalist, I think I will make an exception for this!
Posts: 4917 | Location: Umbria | Registered: 29 June 2001
By pure coincidence, I had to open a bottle of white (1976) on the weekend, because it was seeping. Last bottle of wine, bottled by my father who died in 1977.
Then....
This morning a news story on radio. Cork trees can only be harvested every ten years, and then just one half of the tree trunk. On average, they produce 2000 wine corks. A cork tree lives for 200 years. That's 20 harvests of 2000 corks, which means 40,000 corks in the lifetime of the tree. Given the massive increase in wine production around the world in the last twenty years, it is highly unlikely that we could grow enough cork trees to keep up with demand for corks.
Posts: 893 | Location: Sydney, Australia | Registered: 20 January 2002
But Zak's article was saying just the opposite - we have enough cork for wine bottles. And we need to keep the cork forests growing. What a confusing world we live in.
I also heard that there weren't enough trees to keep up with everyone and their brother that is now making wine.
Who knows the real reason.I do know that they started making the composite corks too, with crumbled pieces, and then adding a slice on the top and bottom for the smae reason.
My wife, I love her, but for some reason opening wine bottles gets away from her. By the time I get the "ummm I have a little problem here" the cork is in shreds half in the bottle and well, you get the picture. I bought a "Bonjour" cork puller for her....this is a great gadget, clamp it over the top of the bottle, push the lever down the cork comes up and out of the bottle, remove the gadget from the bottle push the lever back up, it releases the cork! no problems since! Not traditional, but, IT WORKS.
Daniel and Priscilla in Fort Lauderdale
Posts: 634 | Location: South Florida | Registered: 25 July 2001
quote:What is wall-to-wall carpeting? Sounds strange.
My absolutely favorite thing about Italy - the building quality. Beautiful quality old houses. Even new construction with those bricks they use is much better quality than most modern construction in the US. Tile floors, stone walls, wooden ceilings - and no wall-to-wall carpeting!
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