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With all the bubbly flowing this season, I've been wondering
which is better for the environment — wine with plastic corks
or real ones?
In recent years, plastic corks have gained a strong position in the
wine market — even metal screw-on lids seem to be gaining on
more traditional corks. The reasoning behind the switch, however,
isn't due to environmental issues but to a type of wine contamination
known as "cork taint." That is, some wines (the generally accepted
estimate is two to 10 percent) acquire a musty, flat taste after reacting
with 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA). TCA in cork has been ascribed to
pesticide use by cork farmers in the 1960s and 70s, as well as to
chlorine washes farmers use to clean cork. However, it has also been
found in any number of other locations — a very common environmental
pollutant.
The anti-cork vintners
claim that the risk of losing millions of bottles of wine every year
is great enough to necessitate new wine sealing practices —
plastic corks or metal lids. Perhaps the plastic corks are more difficult
to remove than the traditional bark corks, but it's a small price
to pay.
However, supporters of the old-fashioned bark corks claim that cork taint isn't entirely due to, well, cork. TCA, they say, can appear at any stage of the wine-making process, in barrels, airborne molds, or even in unsuitably maintained home cellars. TCA has been found in bottled water, raisins, soft drinks, and even in wine with plastic or metal closures.
More importantly, the cork industry, they say, protects a traditional way of life in Spain and Portugal. Cork farming is one of the few truly sustainable farming practices in common usage, as an individual tree's bark is removed only once every nine years, and is done without any damage to the tree whatsoever. Also, cork oak forests on the Iberian Peninsula are home to highly endangered species like the Iberian lynx and the Imperial eagle. The UK's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds warns that, if synthetic corks gain too much prominence, natural cork's value will plummet, leading to the destruction of centuries-old forests, with farmers selling out to upscale housing developers.
For the casual wine drinker, what's readily available might be the
easiest choice — congratulations for even thinking about the
environmental impact of your wine. Currently, natural corks are the
wiser choice, for the environmental footprint of their production,
as well as for the uncertainty of the real causes behind TCA contamination.
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