Real Reason for Alternative Closures

Over the past couple of years my father and I have been debating about why more and more producers are going to wine bottle closures other than natural cork.

Through all my reading (30 Second Wine Advisor, Wine Spectator, etc.) I am led to believe that the predominant reason is consumer's disappointment with tainted wines due to a natural cork and the reliability of alternative closures of preserving the liquid gold with little to no chance of taint. Therefore, greater sales due to reliability of knowing what's in the bottle is almost guaranteed to be good quality.

His position is that there is a world shortage of cork and therefore cork prices are skyrocketing.

My gut tells me it's probably a combination of the two, but I'm looking for help in bolstering my argument (or information that would support the cork shortage argument).

Usually these debates get pretty heated after a few "uncorkings".

Thanks for any links, help, advice in advance.

A few years ago the "world shortage of cork" scare was put out. But not long ago I was told by a cork manufacturing rep that there is no shortage of cork, and of course as screwcaps gain, that is certain to be the case anyway.

There have been some shortages of cork -- when Gallo started using it again, for example -- but the leading producer of cork for wine bottles states:

Q: Is there a world shortage of cork?

A: There is enough cork in the cork forests of Portugal to last more than 100 years. The introduction of new products such as Twin Top® corks for commercial wines allows even better utilisation of existing cork resources. A reforestation program means that the forests are growing by four per cent a year.

This information appears on
the website of Amorim.

And, of course, there are cork forests in many other countries, although Portugal is the leading producer.

Here's a piece of trivia that will tickle you Bob.

One of the earliest resveratrol findings was in cork bark.

Here's a pretty thoughtful analysis of the wine closure business, although it focuses primarily on the South African wine industry. It's a PDF file:

http://www.capewineacademy.co.za/seminars/CWM_B_Barker.pdf

Dave:

Thanks for linking that study report. Hadn't read it. Good stuff.

The one comment I especially enjoyed was on page 38, when the author quoted Steve Bell, from South African wine producer MCG, quoting Bob Campbell:

"Mr. Bell put a humorous twist on our discussion by quoting Bob Campbell (New Zealand wine critic and Master of Wine): 'Just imagine the response, if the whole wine industry had been using screw tops for generations and some bright spark popped up to tell us there was this great new thing called cork. Of course, it means that about ten percent of wine will be tainted, there will be dulled fruit flavours, musty odour problems and variation in wines as they age. But hey, it makes a great sound when you pull it out of the bottle!'"