Decanter World Wine Awards
‘Natural cork in your wine bottle does more than just preserve and improve the quality and character of your wine. It preserves a centuries-long way of life in the rural communities of the Mediterranean cork oak forests, its incredible wildlife as well as the planet by absorbing CO2,’ the campaign – which is backed by Prince Charles – claims.
The statement’s sentiments are as suspect as its syntax. It demonstrates once again that the cork industry’s grasp on the realities of public relations is as shaky as ever.
Natural cork now accounts for 69% of the 18bn wine closures sold last year, with screwcaps taking 11% and plastic corks 20%. Ten years ago, over 95% of bottles used natural cork. Natural cork is being supplanted as astopper for all but a top tier of the most expensive wines.
The essence of the campaign is that the harvesting of corkis a sustainable practice under threat. The move to screwcaps would destroy ancient ecosystems. In short, the cork industry is appealing to our emotions toconvince us to support a stopper that almost the entire wine industry, fromwinemakers to critics, agrees is not the best closure for 99% of wines.
It is absurd to seal a bottle that will be drunk withinhours of purchase with a natural stopper that has a failure rate of between oneand six percent, depending on who you talk to. In no other industry would this be tolerated.
In this month’s Decanter magazine, for example, Vanya Cullen of Cullen Wines, one of Australia’s most celebrated wineries, says, ‘Todeliberately kill wines with cork taint or the possibility of oxidation goes against the culture of biodynamics…’
Winemakers like Peter Gago at Australia’s venerable Penfolds, makers of Grange, agree that cork is best for the ‘small niche’ oftop reds that may be cellared for many decades. ‘We still admire the gracefulaging of such wines in cork-sealed bottles over time.’
But Gago’s talking about less than 1% of wine. For the rest,a screwcap is the obvious choice.
The irony of the situation is that the cork industry has hada good deal of success in making corks more reliable. It’s impossible to getabsolute figures for corked wine. At the Decanter World Wine Awards, out of over 10,000 wines tasted we expect a 5-6% rate of corked wines. At the otherend of the argument, cork producer Amorim – and some independent experts – putthe figure at 1%. Most without a vested interest in cork will back the higherfigure.
It is still an unacceptably high failure rate, but there is no doubt that due to investment in technology and research into the causes of TCA (the compound which causes the tell tale mustiness that is cork taint), rates of corked wines are falling, and natural cork now has some influential figures inthe UK industry backing it. Sainsbury’s winemaker Clem Yates was recently quoted in an industry journal saying the chain was working to put more of its own label wines back under cork.
But campaigns such as I Love Natural Cork, with their hamfisted attempts to appeal to consumers’ green conscience, are guaranteed toput everyone’s backs up. The latest piece of tomfoolery had Jilly Goolden, once doyen of the British wine industry but quiet for some years, straddling agigantic cork in London’s Hyde Park last week.
On decanter.com she brings out the tired old syllogism that as cork is natural and screwcap manmade, cork is better for the environment and therefore better as a wine closure. If we love the planet we should sign up to the campaign to use more cork.
This will simply not wash.
‘The cork industry is on veryshaky ground here, using emotional consumer communication to supporta product that is for most wines inferior,’ Steve Smith, winemaker at premium New Zealand producer Craggy Range told me.
It must be especially galling for producers like Cullen, whose sustainable credentials are impeccable, to be told they are complicit in the destroying of an ecosystem.
No one would argue that cork forests, which cover millionsof hectares in Portugal, southern Spain, Morocco and elsewhere in theMediterranean, support rare wildlife, and an ancient industry, should not bepreserved.
The cork industry has spent millions on investigating thecauses of cork taint. It must now spend more on diversifying and exploiting the dozens of applications this remarkable substance lends itself to, from luxury flooring to industrial insulation. That would be a far more responsible use ofmoney than using spurious ‘green’ arguments to emotionally blackmail Britishsupermarket shoppers.
Have your say!
Prue Henschke
December 05 07:45
The ability of a mature tree to sequester carbon is significantly less than young trees or even a grassland ecosystem so the green credentials of mature cork forests might be on shaky ground and better calculations should be made on harvested vs non-harvested trees. In the temperate areas of southern Australia we are required by law to preserve many of our large tree species and woodland associations - evident by the picturesque scenes of our vineyards - where environmental stewardship is an important feature of our landscape. Why would the cork woodlands be threatened unless another human decision disregarding the natural environment is made to whack the chainsaw into them?
Clare Apps
September 27 21:10
I hate this topic!!! I have to ask, that with a beverage industry, which is trying to develop ways to keep the product fresher for longer, why anyone would consider cork?
The local “supermarket shopper” is seeking a way to enjoy wine, but also make their dollar stretch further. The restaurants are seeking ways to minimalize waste and lengthen the freshness of the wines they pour by the glass. Consequently, the vessel for which wine traditionally was used for is now also changing and there is no place for cork. Heaven forbid, that the cork industry get wave of this, for then I fear there may be a larger wave of absurd notions and articles.
And then of-course, we could always jump on the “green band wagon”, which has turned into a marketing parade of manipulation and greed. We could tie in corks being “natural and green”. However, with the poor “sustainable grower and winemaker”, leaves the question of, exactly how did you receive your corks, and what company made them, and what type of machinery are you using and your distribution methods…um yes, exactly, green indeed; I see. And, what about recycled screw caps? Then there is always a porcelain-lined vessel that may have a vacuum seal. Oh, and lets not forget the bottom line, cost.
I am excited to see more screw caps. However, at the same time, I think that the long-term aging affects via cork versus screw cap, still need to be determined and tested. I too like my wines with some age. However, to compare the “graceful aging of a bottle of wine with a cork” seems a bit presumptuous without having the scientific and product test results to support findings. All in all making this whole debate about cork versus screw cap a matter of personal preference. Wine with bottle age would also imply that one likes to consume their wine while it is degrading in the bottle, which I find even more ironic that one would ever compare a bottle of wine using a cork closure to being fresh and natural. Well, I am going to stop now, as I have a bubbly tasting to go to, which I do approve the use of cork for, because of the amount of pressure it takes to seal the bottle, but I guess we could get that with a bottle cap too? ? More food for thought?
Toby Bensimon
September 14 09:36
Prince Charles endorses cork? Apart from having the the most abysmal taste in royal consorts, he is quoted as saying that the "de-souling" of humanity probably went back as far as Galileo. As far as endorsements go, I'm with Galileo.
Robert
September 10 11:36
"Let's just get on with getting a life and drinking wine."
Fine, but I opened a bottle of 2003 red the other day (Christian Fischer, of Austria, as it happens.)
I'd been saving it up for years.
Corked.
You could still drink it but it wasn't nice. We poured it away.
And I don't have any other bottles of that wine. I only bought one.
Of course I can find something else to drink. But isn't that a pointlessly frustrating experience?
That's a waste of the winemaker's work; a waste of the shipping; and a waste of my money.
I don't see Lechmere as 'obsessed' just realistic.