DAN'S WINE BLOG- MORE CORK PROPAGANDA

Friday, October 9, 2020

This week I am back on my soap box as a result of some recent propaganda from two major cork suppliers…

A QUICK TWO-STEP:  I recently read an article that was headed up “CORK SUPPLY ELIMINATES TCA”.  The article stated, “Calling it a major breakthrough, Portugal-based Cork Supply has introduced a two-step extraction process that guarantees all of its natural cork stoppers are 99.85% TCA-free with no off-aromas”. It went on to say, “All cork stoppers are put through both technological processes at no extra cost to the customer”.

?Portugal-based Cork Supply (CS) guarantees all of its natural cork stoppers are 99.85 percent TCA-free with no off-aromas – A figure the company claims has not been achieved “anywhere else in the world.”

?All cork stoppers are put through both technological processes at no extra cost to customers – So what they are saying is that they are not going to charge you extra to ensure that their product is “fit for use”. That is very magnanimous of them isn’t it? It would be like buying a new car that came with “free pre-delivery check-up to make sure the wheels are on correctly.”

?So what the headline says is the equivalent of a cleaning product saying, “eliminates all germs” in the headline and the text says, “kills 99.85% of germs”. If a cleaning chemical supplier made that claim, they would be dragged through the courts for misleading advertising.

?CS went on to say that if you are not happy with their 99.85% TCA free claim, you can have (at your cost) each individual cork tested and analysed either by a person with a hypersensitive nose (DS100) or a computer program (DS100+)!!

What they don’t mention in their propaganda and have no “guarantee” against is the possibility of the cork failing (weeping), thus allowing wine to weep out of the bottle or the ingress of air to oxidise the wine. They don’t give any assurances regarding crumbling corks – we have all experienced the joy of having a cork disintegrate as we struggle to remove it! Nor do they mention the sheer physical effort required to wrestle a cork out of a bottle – which is why most of the on-trade staff and many women prefer/love screwcaps rather than corks.

CAPTIVATING CORK:  Recently cork giant, Amorim, announced that a natural cork stopper has been proven to capture 309g of CO2 and a sparkling stopper can retain up to 562g. Amorim say that this can offset the carbon footprint of the bottle that the wine is shipped in, depending on the weight of the bottle. According to them a bottle releases between 300-500g of CO2 during its production, making corks an ally to wine producers in the battle for sustainability.

They studied the: “..different life cycle stages under a cradle-to-gate approach. The processes included forest management activities, cork treatment stages including transport from the forest, and natural cork stoppers production, finishing and packaging. The distribution from Portugal to the UK was also included, together with additional information regarding carbon sequestration from the cork oak forest..”

Sorry if I sound a bit sceptical, but having spent over two decades reading puff pieces, propaganda and down-right lies from the cork producers, I am very, very sceptical of anything they say. I would be fascinated to be able have a look at the actual data involved in this study in order to see if there is any of the previously (amply) demonstrated cork producer bias in the figures, for example the freight from Portugal to the UK, a nearby country that produces very limited amounts of wine. What is the freight carbon footprint to say Germany, or the USA, China or Australia, etc., etc.?

Hey, I don’t care how my wine is sealed into the container it arrives in so long as the method of sealing does not have an impact on the quality of the wine. That is, I want the wine to arrive in the condition that the winemaker packaged it in. As time goes on we will see more wines under ring-pulls (wine in cans is growing rapidly) and under taps (in smaller/higher quality casks) as well as under screwcaps. Just like we still have horses in the age of the motor car and radio’s in the era of the TV and the personal devise, will always have corks sealing some bottles, BUT NOT those going into my cellar thanks! They lost me when I opened a corked bottle of Chateau Latour that I had properly cellared for 19 years, for my son’s 21st birthday and had to tip a small fortune down the drain!

Cheers and enjoy a well screwed wine over the weekend!