Plastic versus cork??

For People Who Drink Wine - and Do Other Stuff Good Too

Posted by marina on December 3, 2007 at 2:36pm

I was having this discussion with a friend earlier today and am interested in knowing other people’s thoughts.

In the past ten years or so, there is a growing trend of replacing natural cork with plastic cork. In fact, plastic cork now represents 10 % of corks in America and that it could rise to 15% worldwide by the year 2015 (useful Google fact). My friend was arguing that using cork is the antithesis of being sustainable, in that millions of cork trees were being cut down for cork use, plastic corks were recyclable and that plastic corks were better for wines, as it doesn’t taint the wine as natural cork does.

I was arguing that in fact, natural cork is infinitely sustainable. Natural Cork is recyclable. Wine corks can be collected and remanufactured into numerous other products. Working in the hospitality industry in Australia, we used to keep all the corks used to give to the zoos for use in animal enclosures. Trees are actually stripped rather than cut and no harm is done to the tree. Natural cork is also biodegradable, in that it will eventually disintegrate when in landfill.

Therefore, what is the best stopper for wine? Plastic, cork, or another increasingly common alternative, screw-caps? Is the spoilage potential of natural cork enough to justify using plastic corks that are not biodegradable? How do screw caps fare with ageing compared to plastic and cork? I’d be interested in hearing people’s tasting experiences with plastic, cork and screw caps.

Comment by A Holmes on December 4, 2007 at 1:03pm: i say why-yes to wine with a plastic cork

Comment by William White on December 5, 2007 at 10:40am: As a young lad I felt that real cork was the only way to go. After time I learned to accept plastic corks. Now, unless you are super-human capable of storeing wine for more than a year without drinking it, screw caps mean nothing but easy access baby. The cork tree is in trouble - there is an increase in wine consumption accompanied by a decrease in rain pH. Cork takes a long time to grow the bark - the bark is sponge like - acidic rain gets soaked up making it harder for trees to grow back bark / survive /be awesome. I am all for plastic. It creates higher revenue for the winemaker (less spoiled bottles) - better product for the consumer - is a small amount of landfill for the happiness the wine provides relative to other human activities - and in the end - the ecological debate around the wine-environment-taste debate should be focused on bio-dynamics - organic farming and sustainable agriculture.

Comment by Gabe Holmes on April 23, 2008 at 3:26pm: I think the cork is classier, but the cap just comes right off. Removes the, "how the hell should I open this" anxiety.