Wine Buying

[mishalak]

So I'm thinking I'd like to go wine shopping sometime this week. I want to try one of those premium Australian box wines, because technology to make wine better is cool. Even if it is less romantic than the pop of a cork, which I suspect, will always be with us at least for champaign.

So who's up for some shopping, say about Friday?

Comments

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Ummm... I'm not sure but I think you have the wrong idea about where corks come from.

Cork is outer dead bark of Cork Oaks, which are widely harvested in Spain and Portugal. It's a renewable resource as it grows back so the trees don't have to be cut down or anything. The only danger to the production of cork is low prices for cork causing landowners to cut down to trees to plant something else. People are moving to replacement materials because cork isn't a perfect stopper, which in a way is a threat to cork. Really the screw cap is technically better since is seals better and doesn't have tastes that can make the wine go off.

I don't know how it is where you are, but out of the last 10 bottles I've opened every one of them had real corks. I've only had one bottle that was sealed with one of the weird foam rubber ones and I wasn't impressed with the wine otherwise I wouldn't have cared either way.

[nikulai.livejournal.com]

"Currently, there is a movement to turn to man-made materials to replace cork due to the shortage of cork trees and problems with tainted corks." from http://www.beekmanwine.com/prevtopap.htm

"Due to circumstances beyond our control, specifically the Euro and the shortage of cork products, we have been forced to pass on a price increase." from http://www.beer-wine.com/category_page.asp?categoryID=81§ionID=2

The last few wineries I've visited have said that while the vast majority of wine is still using real cork, predominantly due to the false notion that the best wines have real cork stoppers, that is begining to change.

On the other side, "Rumors of a possible cork shortage circulated after a drought in Portugal between 1994 and '97 resulted in a run of lower than desired cork harvests. Cork producers charge that plastic competitors told tales about synthetic stoppers being necessary to make up for a shortfall. Exact consensus rarely emerges on issues within Portugal's cork industry, but the consensus among members of the industry is that enough cork exists to meet and surpass demand" from http://www.winebusiness.com/html/MonthlyArticle.cfm?AId=28324&issueId=28169

So, either way, the trend is away from cork and to synthetics.