BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Wine Corks

I agree that people in Spain, Portugal and France probably use regular cork, because they live in Cork-Land. It's like having beef restaurants in Texas. They're supporting their local economy.

But plastic corks and screwcaps are not a US-only thing. Many, many wineries around the world are adopting them for the simple fact that any taint is bad. Regardless of the quality of the cork you get, there is always the risk of taint. It's *especially* the expensive wineries that don't want to destroy a $100+ bottle of wine just because of tree bark.

We'll just have to see in 20 or 30 years if your Spanish and French wineries give in to progress, or if they are willing to live with that risk even when the rest of the world has long since abandoned tree bark <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

<img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Wineries around the world, and which ones are those if not French, Spanish and Italian? Of course, wine is made everywhere but it is not serious. France is the king of wine and as long as they use cork-tree corks - this gonna be the right way to make wine. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

As I said, thereotically, there always is a risk in something, but practically - no. There is a risk that some spark gets inside a vehicle's fuel tank and it goes BOOM, and now what? We should all use electro-mobiles? :rolleyes:

There is a huge range in quality of corks. If USA importers buy the bad ones and use them to spoil the wine, well ... their problem. If spanish wineries buy bad corks and use them and spoil them - their problems. But one thing is for sure - good wineries will never buy bad corks. Conclusion: buy wine from good wineries. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Using plastic corks is more or less like using synthetic "leather" instead of the real one in cars and furniture.

<img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Not France nor Spain are starving, changing the industry from tree to plastic cork production wouldn't hurt the countries that much. If good wineries really thought it would be better for them to change, they would have gone ahead without any doubts ... there is nothing holding them.

Anything can happen in 20-30 years. But as the things are nowadays, I'd say it will stay this way.

I thought we got past this good wine - bad wine thing. I can find you more references, but it has little to do with good wine - bad wine. *All* cork has a 5%-15% potential to be bad. Even "good cork". There is no 100% guaranteed way to remove TCA from a cork. So any cork, of any shape, size, color, or source, can be infected. Any WINE can be infected. And many really really good wines HAVE been infected. They are just caught by internal quality control before they get out to the masses, because they are usually kept in bottles at the winery for longer, and are caught. But the wine is still destroyed, which upsets the wineries very much.

Since you are a strong believer of "French Wine is the Best" (despite US wines winning out over them in many international taste tests) I will find you some proof that good French wineries are indeed affected. It has nothing to do with the quality of the wine. ALL wines are affected.

From a French wine tour group:

http://www.wine-tours-france.com/FrenchwineFAQ.htm#corked

"There is a great deal of controversy as to the real origin of the corked defect in wine. Many people believe that it is caused by a poor quality cork, but in reality, even the highest quality cork can be affected. Some people have gone so far as to attribute the smell of moldy cork in the wine to the fact that the wine was laid on its side and � absorbed � the taste and smell of its cork! "

"One teaspoon of the stuff is potent enough to destroy all the wine produced in the U.S., and one affected cork packaged with thousands of others could contaminate the whole batch."

From a tasting:

http://www.auswine.com.au/forum/tnotes/427.html

"1996 Louis Carillon & Fils Puligny Montrachet �Les Perrieres� 1er cru (Burgundy)
It was with much anticipation I lifted my glass, and with equal speed I put it down, barely able to discern any aromas of wine under the overwhelming TCA infection. Not even tasteable. Bugger!"

I think Burgundy is in France, isn't it? <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

"1983 Chateau Lafite Rothschild (Paulliac)
Hmmm � Chateau Le Feet, as somebody remarked. Something is wrong here. This wine is very musty indeed. For a while I though our visiting expert was going to defend it (on the grounds of tannin structure, etc) but this must surely have been suffering TCA or oxidation or a combination of the two. It�s my first Lafite, and I can�t believe it�s built it�s reputation on wines like this. A musty nose & no palate � what a bummer."

I hear that Paulliac is also a French wine <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Again I think the problem with TCA in French wines is that inexperienced wine drinkers who drink French wines that are mildly tainted think that flavor is *part* of the normal wine flavor. They don't realize it's a wrong flavor.

"Sometimes the characters that a bad cork imparts elicits mild "This doesn't taste like it did the last time," or "this wine doesn't have any aroma," or "this is just like my Grandmother's basement or potting soil...," or "boy, you can tell this is a French wine!"

http://www.chehalemwines.com/newsletter/ pdf_archive/2000_fall.pdf

http://www.amcnab.demon.co.uk/cif/info.htm

"In another study in 1999 the French consumer magazine �Que Choisir� showed that many Bordeaux wines in the 1980�s and early 1990�s had been tainted with TCA while the wine was still in barrels. The cause in these cases was discovered to be a fungicide - pentachlorophenol, commonly used (until it was banned in 1994) for treating wood. In the humidity of the cellars the fungicide in new wooden panels and beams had transformed into unpleasant volatile compounds like TCA which were polluting the entire atmosphere. The report points out that until 1994 the same fungicide was routinely used on wooden pallets."

Been drinking any 80s Bordeaux recently?

http://www.the-stupids.com/wine_bordeaux.htm

"'96 Beaumont (Haut-Medoc) ($13): Sixth time I've tasted this and they've all been tainted with TCA. JD "

http://www.thewinedoctor.com/index2.htm?http://www.thewinedoctor.com/formalbordeaux1981.htm

"Ch�teau L�oville Barton (St Julien) 1981: Again here we have a similar hue. On the nose we have some fruit with a lick of graphite, but this is spoiled by a dirty, vegetal note which becomes more obvious and woody with time. A corked wine. Nevertheless, fairly lush on the palate, spicy and peppery, but marred by the musty notes of TCA. Underneath there is good structure. The finish is dirty and harsh. What a crying shame, this would have been a wonderful wine. Faulty."

"Ch�teau Latour (Pauillac) 1981: Quite a dense, caramel-mahogany wine. Unfortunately there are horrendous corked aromas from this wine, which I just couldn't get past on the nose. On the palate, good fruit, strong tannins and a nice structure shows that this may have been a lovely wine. Oh dear. Faulty."

OK I'll stop there. Suffice it to say that I easily found on the web hundreds of references to corked French wines, of all price ranges and areas. It happens to them all. French wines are not immune.