CORK VERSUS SYNTHETIC CORK
by Professor Hrayr Berberoglu.

2004


Imagine yourself entertaining a friend, business associate, or family in a restaurant. You order a bottle of wine and the server pours a little in your glass for approval. The wine smells terrible, moldy, foul like a bacteria-ridden carpet, and plain repulsive. What to do? Quietly state the fact and ask the server to bring another bottle. If he/she begins to argue, call the manager over and insist that the wine be replaced; never become angry or belligerent. The fact is that many servers and even managers have no idea how a corky wine smells and frankly most could care less!

Statistics show that approximately 2 - 8 percent of all natural -cork enclosed bottles are faulty. This can result from the chlorine treatment of the cork bark, or from moldy, dirty cellars where bacteria have been multiplying for years.

Since corky wine has been a major problem many French and American manufacturers attempt to produce artificial corks, or compounds to glue ground cork. So far, attempts have been only partially successful, although many wineries ( 600 world-wide ) use them.

The culprit is 2-4-6 TCA ( trichloroanisol ) an extremely potent compound resulting from faulty treatment of cork bark or moldy cellars. Interestingly enough TCA is also found in food and bulk wine. It is so potent that as little as five parts per trillion can be detected olfactorily.

Simply put, the equivalent of a couple of dozen grains of salt of TCA can infect an Olympic size swimming pool.

Corky wine has always been a problem for wineries and all accept returns. The LCBO replaces any TCA-tainted wine without question, provided you can produce a receipt.

Robert Mondavi Winery of California goes to extra-ordinary lengths by employing an expert who supervises workers cutting barks from cork trees, and through the whole process, until shipments arrive at the winery. The winery bottles nine million cases and can afford such vigilance. SupremeCorq, Neocork Technologies of Napa, Nomacorc and Sabate are only a few artificial cork manufacturers who claim their products to be safe and suitable for long cellaring.

Neocork technologies of Napa invented an enclosure consisting of a foam core with a plastic covering, and Supreme Corq patented Presevera.

In Ontario Malivoire Wine Company uses artificial cork and reports satisfaction with their performance. Many others use compound corks ( ground cork bound with a glue ) some of which are better designed than others, but all seem to be more suitable for wines meant to be consumed within a year or two after harvest.

Champagne manufacturers and a few wineries glue a thin slice of perfect cork at the bottom of a compound cork claiming it to be very effective but not much less expensive than a regular high-quality cork.

Plumpjack, a reputable and high-end Napa Valley winery, recently marketed its screw capped Cabernet Sauvignon in a box along with a bottle of traditionally corked bottle. Management reports to have had no complaints but the practice has been abandoned.

Franciscan Winery in Sonoma County has been artificial corks for the past seven years successfully. Only the sommelier of the tasting room complained that the corks were too tight and he had to use " extra power " to extract each one of them.

Chimney Rock, Parducci, DeLoach, and St Supery, all California wineries, are experimenting with artificial corks, but a few others who attempted to use them have been disappointed.

One small Napa valley winery in particular had to cancel its entire vintage release due to a faulty artificial cork and is suing the manufacturer.

It is believed that artificial corks are acceptable for quick consumption wines only. Modern, tight-sealing screw tops manage to keep the wine fresh, if the top has been flushed with an inert gas ( nitrogen or a mixture of nitrogen and carbon dioxide ) prior to enclosure.

But once the bottle is enclosed the total exclusion of oxygen prevents the wine to evolve. Some 600 wineries world-wide use 300 million artificial enclosures, versus 13 billion natural corks. The percentage of artificial enclosure usage is increasing but remains still small. Regardless of popularity cellaring worthy red wines seem to be adversely affected by artificial cork enclosures. Screw tops seem to fine for low-end wines and white wines both lack romance and sophistication. Restaurants are definitely against using them, except for carafe and by-the-glass wines.

Wineries are determined to find a solution to corky wines. Cork is also becoming an expensive commodity since only five countries ( Portugal, Spain, Morocco, France and Italy ) produce and demand has been outstripping supply for a number of years.

If anyone could succeed in making screw cap topped wine and/or conglomerate corks popular, it would be one or a few New World wine producing countries. California or New Zealand or Australia come to mind.

Famous European wineries and chateaux are definitely not interested in experimenting with artificial corks or screw tops.

Chateau Lafite continues to send its cellar master to important markets to re-cork its fine wines from time to time.

Hrayr Berberoglu took early retirement after lecturing on restaurant management and conducting wine, beer and spirits seminars for over a quarter of a century.

Now he consults and writes to increase wine, beer and liquor awareness. He conducts seminars and would be pleased to consider your requests. To peruse the list of his published books and order please contact him at hirayrberberoglu_3@sympatico.ca

Hryar Berberoglu www.littlefatwino.com