New wine closures a threat to Cork trees

This seems a bit counter intuitive. The trend for wine makers to use plastic or screwtop closures for wine has many environmentalists worries that this trend will doom the tree.

Cutting off the cork to use for the estimated 20 billion closures a year has kept the forests healthy and provided a habitat for many endagered species. Higher end wines will always use cork, but the mass market will always look to go cheap whenever possible cutting into the market for the natural product.

The solution IMHO is simply. There is no reason to buy crummy wine

news.yahoo.com...

it should take a long time for the 2,700,000 hectacres of cork trees in 7 Mediterranian countries to get decimated for a lack of need in wine corks


i would think the cork would be diverted to new product lines
maybe like 'green' soundproofing or insulation for top of the tier homes
(getting away from the 'Pink' spun fiberglass insulation used commonly)


see link; www.iberianature.com...


maybe cork floors at Yoga studios? may become fashionable.

i'm a beer-guy, & some friends only get wine by the box..no corks involved here

thanks,

Its funny we live in an Eichler that used cork floors back in the 50's as it was cheap. Now its trendy and runs upwards of $10.00 a sq. foot

hey cudos to screw top wines. we've been honing in a few of them in the last 2 years and have been happily surprised.

Poo poo...

Originally posted by FredT
Higher end wines will always use cork, but the mass market will always look to go cheap whenever possible cutting into the market for the natural product.

The solution IMHO is simply. There is no reason to buy crummy wine

I guess I missed why Plumpjack Reserve, or d'Arenberg The Dead Arm were crummy wines.

The Stelvin closure (the correct name for a "screw top") is vastly superior to cork and will replace 99% of the wines currently using natural cork. I think it's only a matter of time before some of the chateaus in the 1855 classification will use the Stelvin, with a first growth being corkless in the next 10-15 years.

The cork trees should be fine, I disagree that the trees are healthier by being stripped of their bark... It leaves the tree susceptible to parasites and fungus.

Well I like corks, I hate it when I unfoil the top of a wine bottle and find a rubber stopper.

Originally posted by Mirthful Me
The cork trees should be fine, I disagree that the trees are healthier by being stripped of their bark... It leaves the tree susceptible to parasites and fungus.

I think the fear is the cork trees will be chopped down and replaced with non-native species that will not be able to support the local flora and fauna ecosystem.

[edit on 8/6/2007 by djohnsto77]

You know I have never been fond of the Dead Arm. other d'Artenberg's have been okay. Ill admit Ive not tasted the Plumpjack however, given the treatment we recieved at thier Squaw Valley eatery Im unlikely to ever have any grace my cellar anytime soon.


It may be a bit longer than that MM. The first growth's are at least to my amatuer opinion pretty hyde bound. Perhaps in that time frame you may see some stellar second growth like Ducru-Beaucaillou et al go that route with thier second wines and perhaps thier firsts.

As far as I know only one first growth, Chateau Margaux, did do some of its second wine using a screw cap, but for a long term experiment only. Do you want to be in the position of plunking down (lets see first growth 06 are in the 490-500+ range) with a closure that has not been tested out for 20-30 years or more. That would be a bummer if it did not work. Not that cork is going to be fool proof over that time frame either. But do you want to bet your hard earned $$$ on it?

I have two 2002 Kay Brothers Shiraz Hillside Amery Vineyards which are screwtops which parker rated fairly high. I plan to keep them till about 2015 and give it a taste.