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Cork is manufactured from the bark
of the cork oak tree indigenous to Portugal and
Spain. It takes many years for cork oak trees
to yield quality cork. This is the reason why
good cork is so expensive. When it was first discovered
that cork could be used as a closure for wine
bottles it was a boom for the industry. Vintners
could now bottle their wine and store it over
long periods of time without fear of spoilage.
Cork is the traditional closure for wine, but experts
will tell you that it may not be the best closure
available. Modern synthetic corks and stoppers make
a better seal and virtually eliminate the off-flavours
sometimes associated with natural cork. There is
a major thrust by commercial wineries to find a
suitable replacement for cork. Bad cork is costing
them millions of dollars a year in spoilage. You
can expect to see more wineries using synthetic
corks in the near future as high grade cork becomes
harder to find.
Unlike commercial wineries, the cost of using cork
is not a big factor for us. If we get a couple of
"corky" wines we are only out a couple
of bucks or so. It is also possible that as commercial
wineries move to alternative closures there will
be more reasonably priced quality cork available
to amateur wine makers. So home vintners can still
partake in the pleasure of pulling a real cork from
their bottle of wine without much trepidation. At
Brewery Lane we carry two types of cork- agglomerate
and solid. We are also testing synthetic corks which
we hope to make available soon. The agglomerate
cork is composed of granules of cork glued together.
There are two grades available. Regular agglomerate
corks are inexpensive and intended for short storage
of less than 1 year. Winery agglomerate corks have
been designed for commercial wineries and can be
used for storage of up to 5 years. Solid corks come
in two types; collimated and natural. Collimated
corks are solid corks that have been filled and
polished to cover defects. These are intended for
short term storage of 2 years or less. Natural cork
is solid cork without any cosmetic finishes. Natural
cork can be found in several grades and can be used
for storage of up to 10 years or more depending
on the grade you choose.
So the decision is really yours. If you intend
to keep your wine for only short periods of time,
say 6 months or less, then it really doesn't matter
which type of closure you use. The type of closure
becomes more important if you intend to age your
wines. Over the past 2 years I have been conducting
an experiment. I bottled a batch of wine using different
corks. The results have been quite revealing. I
found that all the wine bottled using lower grade
agglomerate and collimated corks to be inferior
and sometimes undrinkable after 2 years. The same
wine sealed with winery agglomerate corks was quite
good. The wine sealed with high quality natural
solid cork was the best and seemed to have a smoother
character. My advice is to use the best cork available
if you intend to age your wine for extended periods.
You may also want to consider synthetic corks.
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