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Corks for Wine

That tiny piece of bark (yes, cork is bark harvested from a variety of oak tree) is the focus of much controversy amongst today's winemakers. Here at Ross Valley Winery, we think there is some thing additional to the discussion than the substitution of cork by choice closures as a excellent situation.

Proponents of alternative closures beat the drum of TCA, triclorolaminisol, the chemical produced by certain molds that give "corked" wine its wet cardboard smell. Some say as considerably as 8% of all wine is infested with this disgusting smell, but I personally think that figure is grossly overstated and getting used as a "fact" to drive wineries toward other closures. I have been making wine commercially at the Ross Valley Winery seeing that 1987, have pulled countless corks right here in the tasting room or at dwelling and have smelled every one particular of them. I can count the "corked" wines on 1 hand. It only is not a challenge for this winery. What is genuine is that some men and women are much a lot more sensitive to the smell than other folks, so I have a compact bottle of TCA on hand here if you feel you'd like to educate your nose palate to the smell. You'll never forget it.

I believe the popularity of say, plastic substitutes or even screw leading closures is based in money and is a decision made by the corporate controller, who, as wineries appear far more and a lot more like refineries, is responsible for assuring the corporation's economic good quality.

A decent 1 3/4" cork price about 30 cents. If you obtain 100,000 of them, the value doesn't drop significantly. . I just got off the telephone having received a quote for the very same sized cork at 11.8 cents each. Twenty cents difference doesn't seem like a lot, unless you are bottling twenty million bottles then the distinction would pay plenty of hungry stockholders. And if you purchased 20 million artificial closures, youd get an really great cost all the manufacturer has to do is turn on the extruder. Meanwhile it requires that 25 year old cork tree 7-9 years to develop a new bark to be made into corks for Ross Valley Winery's merlot or cabernet.

And even even though "The Ross Valley Winery" prints really nicely on plastic closures, the closure is part of the aesthetic and tradition of the complete item. And wine is something, it's traditional.I say that when Chateau Petrus starts utilizing artificial closures, so will I. Meanwhile, I'll stick with all-natural cork.