On Sat, 29 Jan 2005 22:37:02 -0600, Cwdjrx _ wrote:
>
> Besides the problem of corked wines, this failure of the cork structure
> with extended contact with wine is the reason I hope screw caps soon
> become universal.


I find the trend towards screw tops on wine quite depressing. It's going to
decimate one of the main industries in the Alentejo and other areas where
there are few alternative sources of employment. Cork is an infinitely
renewable resource, is biodegradeable, and will not sit around in rubbish
dumps for hundreds of years like Teflon.

I'm very skeptical about tastings which report failure rates of up to 30%.
I suspect any fault in the wine is nowadays ascribed to the cork. Even so,
I think a few corked bottles of wine every now and again is a price we
should be prepared to pay. I don't think it's fair for us wine drinkers to
insist on a zero failure rate for corks, if a consequence of this is to
destroy the livelihoods of people who have been involved in the industry
for generations.

There are ways of improving the performance of cork, for e.g., by washing
in hydrogen peroxide, but a large part of the problem is that the price for
lower grades of cork has come down over the past 20 years or so, and so a
great many of the problems that are emerging now arise as a result of
bottlers using inferior cork in order to save money.
--
Cliff Laine, The Old Lard Factory, Lancaster http://www.loobynet.com
* remove any trace of rudeness before you reply *

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