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Uncorking quirks
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Every wine drinker at one time or another will run into the ever-evasive cork. It has to come out to enjoy the wine, but try as you may it only breaks up and you end up having to filter the wine because it's full of pieces of cork that disintegrated instead of coming out with a nice “pop” like it is supposed to.
Unfortunately, this happened to me as I was tending bar at a New Year's Eve party some years ago and had a line of people wanting me to be really professional looking and pour the wine for which they had just paid.
Of course everyone is familiar with cork. It is the stuff you use for bulletin boards or if you go fishing you may use it as a cork bobber if you do not have one of those white and red plastic thingies.
Actually, cork comes from a type of oak that is classified as an evergreen. The outside bark on the cork oak tree, called the phellum, dies and serves merely as insulation and a protective cover for the inside bark which functions like the outside bark on most trees.
It takes about 25 years for the outer layer to be thick enough to be stripped away. However, the quality at this point is questionable. After another nine or ten years the second stripping is ready, but it is not until the third stripping that the cork has the quality and even grain it takes to make solid objects such as stoppers for wine bottles.
After harvesting, the cork is then boiled to remove tannic acids and sap, while increasing its flexibility. Then it can be used for worthwhile quality products.
Old school vinophiles have a tradition of drinking nothing but wines that have real cork. What must be realized is this is getting to be an expensive tradition. In order to win over our old schoolers, some manufacturers have made stoppers that looks like natural cork but are made from medical or food grade plastic designed to be inert so they do not affect the taste of the wine but at the same time function as a seal so no air gets into the bottle.
Wines with plastic corks are said to age faster so most bottles sealed this way should be consumed in a shorter time frame than those with natural cork.
In the 1950’s screw tops were developed for wine and introduced on a large scale in the 1970’s. This proved to be a marketing disaster as most people thought the wine must be inferior.
In the 1990’s Australia and New Zealand introduced what is known as the Stelvin Closure (screw cap) which caught on after Gordon Getty announced he was using the same on his Napa $150 a bottle Cabernets.
This seems to be a tide that is finding approval in the wine community today. Not only is it less expensive, the long term effect of aging seems to be favorable. Because the corks do not have to be kept moist, bottles can be stored upright instead of on their sides.
The best bet is to remove the stopper (whatever kind it is) and drink the wine. I like to collect the corks, but drinking the wine has proven to be the most enjoyable.
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| by Scott Richards |
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