Put A Cork In It!
We have a couple of expressions regarding cork – ‘corking it up’ – as in don’t allow yourself to express frustration, fear or anger, and the above – ‘put a cork in it’ to mean shut up.
Cork for multiple uses has been around for millennia – whether it was used by ancient Romans, Greeks et al for boats, shoes, fishing net buoys, and then much later in the 1600’s or so, as stoppers for liquids. In ancient days, wine, vinegar and other liquids that needed to be preserved were sealed with wax, leather, clay or even cloth soaked in oil. Cork is an incredibly durable and flexible bark primarily from the quercus suber. These days, most of the cork we use comes from Spain, Portugal and Italy, where these trees can grow to over 50’ high with a circumference in excess of 10’. With well over 2 million acres currently growing in the Mediterranean Basin, there should be sufficient to keep us going for a while. The Portuguese are the kings of cork – with over 50% of the world’s supply being grown there.
Up until the 1600’s glass was used to house wine, and it was all hand-blown, and stoppers were invariably made with also hand-blown stoppers. But it was an expensive and time-consuming process to make these, so cork became the sealant of choice. We have used cork assiduously ever since, but with numerous changes, alterations and innovations. You can imagine how it was not a simple task to remove a glass stopper from a bottle, and in the 1700’s the corkscrew was developed which allowed for corks to be fairly easily pulled from the neck of the bottle, to release the glorious nectar.
With over 25 years of growth before the bark can be used, cork trees are remarkably durable – and quite by coincidence, some vines come into their full glory at that age also. It takes three successive harvests before the cork is deemed good enough for high quality corks. Once the bark has been stripped, the tree will not be touched again for another nine years or so. For decades, corks for wine were punched out of the stripped and cured bark. With often no specific sizing, corks could often let in tiny microbes that damage or destroy the wine. Things have changed now, and some companies are using advanced technologies to make corks that match the necks exactly.
The benefit of cork is that it allows for a molecular amount of air to enter the bottle. This has a double effect – it helps gradually release some of the sulfites that are present, and yet also allows for the wine to age gracefully, and create a fuller-bodied wine. The oxygen exchange rate for you nerds out there is about 1 milligram of oxygen per year.
In the mid 20th Century, the Swiss and then Australians needed to find ways to defeat the deleterious effects of TCA (2,4,6-trichloroanisole) that was plaguing their production. This vile little microbe finds its home in porous products – wood and cardboard especially, that are most prevalent in any wine facility. A TCA infested warehouse can spell disaster for a winery. Presto! Bingo! Voila! The screw cap was born. Unless it’s dinged or dented, a screw cap enclosure will ensure that a wine will remain exactly as it was when first bottled. And this is not such a good thing for many fine wine makers. They want that subtle aging process to occur… I recall talking to a winemaker who explained it this way: Would you put ten piles of $1,000 in cash on a table and then set fire to one of them? Absolutely not, I replied. Then, he explained, that is what could happen if you use natural cork. Interestingly, he used screw caps for most of the wines, but kept natural cork for the highest end wines – ahhh, it’s ALL perception of quality!
The Portuguese, Italian and Spanish markets for cork started to seriously decline in the late 1900’s, and numerous forests were torn out to make way for other industries. Over and above the destruction of important habitat for various animals, as well as the beneficial removal of pollutants in the air, it meant that when a resurgence of cork needs happened a few years later, there was a shortage. This has been made up and now corks are used in almost 70% of all wines globally.
There are numerous manifestations of cork used today:
Natural cork – we’ve discussed this…
Colmated corks are the same as natural corks and are more reliable. The tiny pores (lenticels) that are seen in natural cork are compressed by using powdered oak and a strong binding agent.
Agglomerate corks are a combination of wood fibers and left-over granules from the cork manufacturing process. Low-cost, they are only suitable for sealing wine for about two years.
Technical corks use an agglomerate cork body with a disc at each end and are generally less permeable than natural cork.
Champagne corks (my personal favorite, as it’s ALL about the liquid they hold back!) are made up of two cork discs at the top, and then a longer cork at the base all glued together. This structure creates a unique flexibility such that contact between the CO2 and the 6-8 bars of pressure in sparkling wines allows for expansion of the cork.
Zork - a combination of screw top and a plunger. Invented by an Australian, this eliminates cork taint and oxidation.
Pulling a cork shouldn’t be an arduous task – take it slow and easy. I always use a “waiter’s corkscrew” - it generally has a hinge that allows you to pull part of the cork up and then insert the screw a bit deeper and then lever it all the way out. I will only use a pronged puller (Ah-So is the commercial bran we all know) rarely and if there’s nothing else, as it can often push the cork into the bottle. And for much older bottles, I use the trusted Durand – a combination of Ah-So and corkscrew. The screw goes in first, and then the flanged prongs. It all holds the cork beautifully, and rarely have I had a broken cork with this.
So, no matter the utensil, or even the cork, just enjoy the wine!
