Though the WineNews team is not surprised – the issue of closures, we have always known, is a sure-fire way to elicit response, far and wide – we felt it prudent to pose some prickly questions concerning The Great Closure Divide, especially as it relates to the concept our industry is officially punting – biodiversity. Jeanine Wardman writes...
Topping my list of personal truths, pain-stakingly collated over thirty years of living the human condition, has to be Winston Churchill’s ‘...nature never deals in black or white. It is always some shade of grey.’ The same can be said of so many issues confronting our existence. And although resolving the cork vs. screwcap debate will not help us evolve to higher levels of collective consciousness, applying Churchill’s wisdom might offer a way of concluding an issue that is mostly presented as, well, black or white.
Consider the various shades of grey making up the no-man’s land between either side of the debate and ask yourself if where you are positioned is wholly reconcilable with your stance and efforts on conserving biodiversity and farming sustainably.
The Biodiversity and Wine Initiative puts forward some thought-provoking facts in a recent article in WineLand magazine:
- Cork is a natural, renewable, recyclable and biodegradable material and is obtained through one of the most environmentally-friendly harvesting processes in the world.
- No single tree is cut down to harvest cork. The bark of trees is stripped every 9-12 years which does not kill the tree, and trees can live for up to 300 years.
- Natural plant diversity in cork oak forests is among the highest in Europe, reaching levels of 60-100 species per 0.1 ha.
- Cork ecosystems also support a rich animal diversity and contribute to the survival of for example, the Iberian lynx (the worlds rarest and most endangered cat), the Iberian Imperial eagle (only 150 pairs remaining in the wild) and the Barbary deer.
- Cork oak landscapes also perform key ecological functions, such as conservation of soil, buffering against fires and water table recharge.
- Cork is also the symbol of a rich Mediterranean cultural heritage. Cork harvesting is not only a process, it represents a heritage of techniques and ways of life, which have survived for years across the Mediterranean and cannot be found anywhere else.
- Cork stopper production supports an entire economy in the Mediterranean as hundreds of thousands of people work to harvest and process the cork in these countries. Cork oak habitats also enable people to make a living as they produce herbs, wild berries, mushrooms, honey, charcoal and firewood.
(Click here for the article.)
Where do I stand? Right smack in the middle – in the greyest of the grey.
I’ll be the first to admit a fondness for the metal screw cap. I love, on occasion, its lack of ceremony - its supreme simplicity. In the midst of haphazardly concocting a supper for four while trying to bath and put two toddlers to bed, there’s nothing quite like twisting the cap off a juicy Rosé or crisp Sauvignon Blanc.
And then, at other times, I prefer the time, effort and ritual of selecting a wine to accompany a Sunday lunch that has been cooking unhurriedly since 7am; opening and aerating it and, finally, savouring it.
Somehow pulling the natural cork offers tactile pleasure similar to the satisfaction derived from walking barefoot on my solid wooden floors or caressing the imperfections in my handmade leather sofa. Psychologically, it offers me a way of self expression in the same way as shopping at the organic farmers’ market on a Saturday morning or ordering quince jelly and free-range venison pies all the way from Graaff-Reinet does.
Yes, I have had many a disappointing experience involving uncorking special and sometimes expensive bottles of lovingly stored and treasured wines. But considering the strides being made in eliminating, or at least minimising TCA from natural corks, do I really have to give up on it because the cork bashers say so?
I understand it is common practice these days for premium wine producers to acquire quality guarantees from cork manufacturers, i.e. the cork guys are putting their money where their mouths are and themselves on the line by undertaking to compensate their clients of any losses or comebacks due to cork taint.
Would the cork boys be in business if Sauvignon Blanc’s taint rate is really 15%, as Robert Joseph famously claimed at the Swiss Air Awards recently? Or could it be that the taint rate exists to this extent, though remains either undetected by ordinary wine drinkers, or that they detect an off-odour though consume it anyway, or, that they simply don’t bother going to the trouble of demanding a refund from their retailer or the producer?
In researching this article I came across rumours of South African producers currently testing batches of screw cap liners at a local laboratory for anisole compounds before bottling - exactly the same procedure used for natural corks. The plot thickens...
I am not nearly informed enough to offer any definitive answers. All I know is what feels good to me – and presumably many other wine consumers - and that based on an analysis of the psychological and other factors shaping my disposition as well as the arguments to be made for conserving cork production, I do believe we have ourselves here a classic conundrum in the Churchill tradition.
Perhaps the closure debate can’t be resolved in a black-or-white either-or way, but requires a grey approach, which will confirm a hunch I’ve had all along: There is room for both (quality) natural corks and screw caps, among wines and those who appreciate it alike.
WineNews offered Joaquim Sa of Amorim Cork South Africa the opportunity to respond to Mr Joseph’s claims. He writes, ‘Problem cork is as much an issue for winemakers as it is for those cork manufacturers that have invested heavily in quality and R&D. So it is with great concern that we heard of Mr Joseph’s utterance. But we also believe that condemning bad manufacturing practices is more productive than condemning the base material.
Since perfection does not exist in this world, there are an increasing number of cork producers using what all successful industries have: solid quality and risk management policies.
Not all cork stoppers are the same and alternative closures don’t offer perfection. I believe this fact is relevant to those millions and millions of consumers, wine writers and winemakers that prefer quality cork not only for environmental reasons.’
Click here for Neil Pendock's 'Cork Catastrophe'
Also see 'It strikes me...' by Jeanine Wardman