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Of course, the bartender does not often have to communicate with a corkscrew, or a “narzannik” – after all, choosing, uncorking and pouring wine for guests is the task of a sommelier. But bartenders face a bunch of different traffic jams every day. Today we will talk about wine and we hope that the information will be interesting and informative not only for catering workers.
Several types of corks are used around the world to seal wine, both traditional, natural, made from cork oak bark, and the so-called alternative, made either from plastic, or from metal, or from glass. Traditional and plastic analogues are removed from the neck using various types of corkscrews (or, according to the Soviet tradition, they are pushed in), screw caps are opened with a slight turn of the hand, and the novelty – a glass stopper is easily removed, you just need to pull it.
How do different corks affect wine, which one is better, and how to understand the sea of these corks? Can a cork influence your choice when buying wine? Let’s try to figure it out. I don’t know where the expression “stupid as a cork” comes from. And I don’t understand what it means. Traffic jams are our life: in the morning, afternoon and evening, residents of megacities curse traffic jams when they drive. But when we get home, another pleasant traffic jam awaits us. We extract it, sniff it, and then …
Despite the attempts to fight alcohol by a group of rabid (not) anonymous alcoholics, all reasonable and reasonably drinking citizens of our country periodically took, take and will take a bottle of wine in their hands and will certainly use it. Why “(not) Alcoholics Anonymous”?
Alcoholics Anonymous, unlike our bawlers with their problem – hidden alcoholism – fight on a collective basis, but quietly, within their community and do not interfere with anyone; our leavened pseudo-patriots and religious obscurantists elevate their abstinence to the rank of a crusade and hide their own alcoholism in remission behind a noisy imitation of a zealous battle to save the Fatherland.
However, between the throat of a citizen and the “blood of Christ”, as the son of God himself called wine, capable of reviving the throat, dried up and exhausted by alcohol fighters, there is a cork. And this barrier – the cork – must be removed before the revival of the pharynx.
There are many options for corkscrews. In the USSR, plastic corks were more preferred – they can be cut with a knife or torn off with teeth (many whose youth passed in the seventies had their teeth injured in this way). Corks presented a problem – due to the usual lack of a corkscrew, corks were pushed inward by something hard or even a finger. In general, we described the most popular ways to open wine without a corkscrew – there is no limit to human imagination.
The most unusual way of extracting wine from a bottle closed with a natural cork was recorded in one of the Moscow hospitals. The sisters who were on duty in the intensive care unit did not have a corkscrew and they did not have the strength to push the cork in. The men around them were also unable to do this due to their position. But natural ingenuity did not allow the girls not to quench their thirst: they pierced the cork with a needle from a dropper, and, hanging the bottle instead of a bag with isotonic solution, extracted the wine from the bottle.
Some statistics about wine corks
The stats are a little outdated, but not much has changed. In 2008, 17.4 billion bottles of wine were produced and sealed worldwide. 26% or 4.6 billion were sealed with natural cork (solid cork from bark oak), 37% – the so-called agglomerate (or technical cork), glued from cork chips (6.4 billion). Metal screw caps accounted for 14% (2.4 billion) and synthetic caps for 24% (4 billion). Glass corks were used by a few manufacturers – they are comparable with a mathematical error.
Domestic plastic corks, which are so well known to those who grew up in the USSR, are not used anywhere else in the world (although some Russian enterprises from the outback continue to use them), therefore they were not included in the statistics either. Almost half of the global cork market is controlled by 6 companies – Amorim (3.1 billion natural corks, 18% of the total market and 28% in the natural corks segment), Nomacorc (2 billion synthetic corks, 11% of the total market and 50% of the alternative corks segment), further followed by Guala, Alcan (the main manufacturers of screw caps), Oneo, NuKorc – all of which make less than a billion caps.
Forecasts and dynamics
The dynamics of the last decade does not speak in favor of corks made from natural material: in 2000, 95% of all wine was corked with corks made of plant material, and according to forecasts, their share should decrease to 57% (moreover, most of them are agglomerated corks glued from production waste). whole corks from whole bark). The sharply increased share of alternative closures will be broken down as follows – screw-on metal closures will rise to 19% and 25% will be synthetic closures, more than half of which will come from the Belgian company Nomacorc.
Types of wine corks
Traditional cork
The most respectable and conservative cork is made from natural plant material – cork oak bark, Quercus Suber. Barrels are not made from it – this tree is valued for its bark. The material that makes up the waterproof (practically), floating and non-combustible bark of this variety of oak is called “suberin”. This kind of oak grows in the South of Europe, but most of all this tree is in Portugal, where 50% of all natural corks in the world are produced. In second place is Spain, in third is Italy.
By the way, this oak of the “suber” variety should not be confused with the cork tree. The bark of the cork tree (phellodendron) is similar to the bark of the cork oak, but is not suitable for making corks. Many wine drinkers put corks in jars and use them as home decor. From them you can find out your tastes, status and condition. We are made of what we eat, and what we drink indirectly speaks either of the state or of taste.
But the cork has a serious problem: all sorts of bacteria live in the pores of the cork, which can irrevocably spoil it. The term “cork taste”, well known to wine connoisseurs, producers, sellers, and restaurateurs, refers to serious defects in wine, which, unfortunately, cannot be diagnosed in a closed bottle – this annoying defect is detected only when you open the bottle. . Annoyance is especially great when this wine is expensive and is opened at home in a solemn atmosphere, and you cannot replace it. Because if this happens in a restaurant, you are obliged to replace the wine immediately. And then the sommelier, supplier and manufacturer’s mood deteriorates. They pass the spoiled wine back through the stage. In addition to headaches, and an unpleasant aftertaste in the shower, there are also huge direct costs associated with transportation and inefficient waste of employees’ time.
It is believed that every tenth bottle of wine sealed with natural cork may have a defect. And here are more accurate statistics: a couple of years ago, at the most prestigious wine competition, the International Wine Challenge in London, 6% of all wines had a cork defect. A similar picture was observed in the US, where producers submit about 3 wine samples to the Wine Spectator competition. Moreover, we are talking about specially selected samples exhibited at the most prestigious wine competitions! The “crust defect” is caused by a substance called 000-trichloroanisole, or as vintners call it TCA for short.
We can say that TCA is a “plug-borne disease” (STD). It is not possible to detect it in the pores of the cork, and this hidden defect appears during long-term storage of wine: the wine is stored on its side to wash the cork. FOD gives the wine the smell of a wet rag, a wet, smelly dog, mold—all in all, rather unpleasant musty aromas. Such wine is not dangerous to drink, but very unpleasant. Since we smell the aromas of the mucous membrane in the nose, such spoiled wines can be soldered to clients who either have no sense of smell at all, or a runny nose and a seriously stuffy nose – they still won’t understand anything.
On the good news, natural corks claim to have found a way to prevent STDs by treating the cork. Natural cork is unlikely to be able to leave our lives, because it is part of the ritual of enjoying wine. Wines from famous producers were sealed with natural cork hundreds of years ago and will be in the future. And how heart-warming this “bang” is when we pull the cork out of the bottle with a corkscrew … This is not the crunch of the carving when you turn the head of the aluminum cap, and not this vile dead creak when we take out the cork lubricated with silicone, glued from natural cork waste … And the very idea that you need to use silicone grease brings back memories of the Nasha Russia program and how a noble Chelyabinsk milling machine operator suggested that his boss go to Novgorod. Rear Novgorod.
Agglomerated corks
The so-called agglomerates – bottle plugs made from natural cork waste – the most common type of cork made from vegetable raw materials today.
Actually, agglomerated cork is made from crushed remains of natural cork with 3-7 mm granules, which are glued, pressed and treated with silicone. Why silicone? These corks are very dense and less elastic than natural corks, and they must be lubricated to fit into the throat of a bottle. Of course, there are fewer problems with FDD in them, but they do happen, and such corks are not intended for wines with great aging potential. Micro-granular cork is made from 0.2-0.5 mm granulate, and supposedly has advantages over conventional agglomerate.
More acceptable (and more expensive alternatives) to agglomerates are agglomerates with a glued natural peel lining. In such a cork, the wine, at least, does not come into contact with glue (no matter how edible it may be, it is still glue), but with a thin layer of natural cork.
There is another option for “not entirely honest” (if I may say so) corks made from natural raw materials. When corks are cut, they are sorted by quality. Rejection has large cavities, cracks and shells, which have learned to patch. The cavities are filled with a mixture of cork dust with latex and edible glue. All such plugs do not guarantee the prevention of STDs. At the same time, due to its “glued” structure, they do not allow the wine to breathe, which means – to develop.
Alternative plugs
Western wine literature tends to say that so-called “alternative corks” began to gain popularity among winemakers in the XNUMXs. Lies, lies and discrediting the wine-making practices of the USSR!
In the USSR, they invented a “reservoir” method for making the so-called “Soviet champagne”, a technology for making food alcohol for vodka from spoiled raw materials – rotten potatoes, pumpkins and beets, as well as a polychlorovinyl cork, which sealed the vast majority of wines of the USSR – Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Russia and other republics that were part of the great Soviet empire. In addition, we had a unique and unparalleled cover made of thin aluminum with a so-called flag. The lid was rolled around the neck of the bottle, and there was a flag – a protruding part, by pulling which it was possible to open the bottle. Such corks were used in the USSR mainly for capping vodka, but also for capping “port wines”, drinks such as “Chervyvka” (fortified fruit and berry wines), or “Zosya” (affectionately diminutive abbreviation for the popular Golden Autumn wine, a variety “worms”). Unfortunately, modern GOSTs in Russia banned this nostalgic artifact “flag”.
True, even Zyuganov and the Pravda newspaper are unlikely to be able to call Soviet corks especially technologically advanced and suitable for noble drinks. So, no need for slander – in the USSR, alternative corks – both plastic and aluminum – began to be used long before the West. As it was sung in the song, “we make rockets, and blocked the Yenisei, and also in the field of ballet, we are ahead of the rest.”
Today’s “alternative” stoppers are divided into synthetic, imitating natural (three types – cast, extruded and co-extrusion), screw-on aluminum caps and glass stoppers with a sealed silicone layer. Why winemakers began to look for an alternative? Mainly due to STDs. But, as practice has shown, the alternative has one more advantage – corks do not break, do not crumble, which often happens with natural ones. But not all alternatives are good.
Aluminum
In the West, since the 90s of the last century, it has become fashionable to cork wines with aluminum screw caps in many wine-producing countries. Such corks are called Stelvin cap, after the name of the main manufacturing company. Nearly 90% of New Zealand wines before 2008 were sealed with screw caps. But today, many New Zealand winemakers are forced to change their bottling equipment to traditional ones, which can close bottles with corks of the usual form – corks, agglomerates and synthetics. A screw-on aluminum cork is an excellent prevention of STDs, but it makes the wine more difficult to breathe. Wine is a living organism and microoxidation is required for its evolution. Screw caps keep young wines fresh, but in the case of prolonged aging in bottles with such a cork, a phenomenon called “reduction” is often the opposite of excessive oxidation. At the same time, a musty smell also appears, often sulfurous tones.
In addition, the consumer is psychologically unprepared to pay a large amount for a bottle with a screw cap. She has an image of an inexpensive product. By the way, most of the large European companies bottling wines for large retail chains (those who produce packaged wines from all countries of the world) currently use either a metal screw cap for short-term storage wines, and for wines of short, medium and even long-term storage – the so-called co-extrusion.
New Zealand is the only wine-producing country where caps have become so widespread. In other countries, screw caps are used for bulk wines with a short shelf life. For example, the Californian Paul Masson. Some countries even have a ban on the use of metal corks for controlled-of-origin premium wines. There is a well-known case in Italy when one producer had to lower the status of his wines due to the fact that they were sealed with a screw cork, and not a natural one.
Glass stoppers
Glass stoppers, called Vino-Seal, appeared in Europe in 2003. The cork received a prize for “Distinction in Packaging”. It is actually technological, elegant, and due to the fact that it can be used repeatedly, it allows you to drink wine not immediately – you can save an unfinished bottle for tomorrow. The most active consumers of such corks are small German and Austrian wineries. The cork seals the wine tightly thanks to an inert rubber-like material that prevents oxidation and FDD. Such corks are ideal for young white fresh fruit wines – fragile and delicate, which are the wines of the northern zone of European winemaking – Austria, Alsace, Germany. But they are not suitable for dense, long-life red wines that require micro-oxidation to develop.
Synthetic peels: Molded
The easiest cork to manufacture is cast: plastic is poured into a mold. Such plugs have the only advantage – they are not a peddler of STDs. They are very dense, and studies have shown that such corks are not suitable for long-term storage of wine, since, despite their density, they do not provide tightness and allow air to pass uncontrollably. There are also reports that such corks add a synthetic flavor to the wine.
Synthetic corks: Extruded and co-extrusive corks.
How to explain in a human way what is “extrusion” and “co-extrusion”?
Imagine that you are in the closet and are depositing solids. In principle, this process of extrusion is called “extrusion”. This is how extruded plugs are made – foamed plastic (polyvinylchloride) is squeezed out through a fitting of the required diameter in the form of a sausage, cooled and then cut into plugs of the desired length. “Co-extrusion” is the same, but the extruded “sausage” is wrapped in an outer, denser layer. How is it packaged. Extrusion corks are free from the risk of FDD, elastic, allow the wine to breathe, but excessively – the access of oxygen in such corks is difficult to regulate due to the design.
Co-extrusion cork breathes thanks to micropores, but thanks to the outer shell, which ensures a tight fit, it does not allow leakage. With it, the wine breathes, it does not transmit STDs and prevents reduction. The level of foam is adjustable, and corks of different densities are produced for different wines, where oxygen access is measured to the third decimal point. This ensures uniform maturation of the wine in all bottles throughout the entire batch, enabling a targeted influence on the development of aromas and a reliable reproduction of a certain taste in the wine. With natural cork, this is impossible due to the fact that nature cannot do exactly the same things.
Many years of research conducted by Nomacorc, which developed and patented co-extrusion technology, in many wine-growing countries showed that co-extrusion cork is the best alternative to normal (healthy, FGD-free) natural cork, with the difference that thanks to nanotechnology, the behavior of co-extrusion cork is absolutely predictable, therefore winemakers can predict results with such a cork. These conclusions were reached by researchers from the Institute of Winemaking at the University of Davis, California (UC Davis), the German Geisenheim Institute, the Australian Wine Research Institute, the Chilean Wine Institute Univercity Catolica, and the French research center INRA. Such a cork closes the neck of the bottle more easily than agglomerates and cast corks, but when removed with a corkscrew, it emits the same “pop” that is pleasant to the heart, which, as consumers note, is very important.
To date, such plugs have received the greatest distribution in the New World and Germany. In California they are used by such venerable companies as Robert Mondavi, Shug, Markham, E&J Gallo (many famous wineries), in Chile by world market leaders Concha y Toro, Cono Sur, in Australia by such big names as Penfolds, Rosemount, Hardy and mass wines – Yellow Tail. In the old world, so far, such corks have received the greatest distribution in Germany, and regions famous for young wines, for example, Beaujolais. In France they are used by George Duboef, La Chablisienne, and in Italy by Frecsobaldi.
It is also interesting to note that on a global scale, retail chains for bottled wines tend to switch to metal and co-extrusion corks for popular and democratic wines – among them are Auchan, TESCO, Lidl, ASDA, METRO, BILLA, Real, ALDI. The largest European wine bottling companies (those that make wines for chains – in bags, bag-in-box, in bottles) are also switching to screws and co-extrusion at the request of chains. Both quality and consistency are important to them.
Should I consider cork when choosing wine?
Undoubtedly. Unlike Russia, in Europe there is a fairly clear segmentation of wines: basic wines (shelf life less than 12 months) – less than 3 euros, popular (up to 24 months) – 3-5 euros, premium – 5-7 euros (36-48 months ), super-premium (potential for 5 years) – 7-14 euros, ultra-premium (storage potential for more than 5 years) 15-150 euros, icons (storage potential can be measured for decades) – more than 150 euros. There are no such prices in Russia. Or rather, what is called “basic wine” in Europe, we, as a rule, cannot be drunk in principle. And everything else, due to the peculiarities of Russian business (the peculiarities of import duties and the technology of importing wine, the shameful practice of listing products in stores and restaurants, the greed of importers), we have 3-10 times more expensive.
Agglomerates when storing wine for more than a year have a high risk of spoiling the wine. The same can be said about molded plastic plugs. Such corks are allowed only for basic – mass cheap “picnic” wines. Although, it is easier to go to a picnic with packaged wine. Metal screws are also good, but only for young (and not necessarily cheap!) wines. In no case should the screw scare you in the case of wines from “basic” to “premium”. Glass stoppers are excellent, especially for the fragile white wines of Northern Europe. But there are few such wines and they seal wines worth at least 10 euros – the cork itself costs 1 euro. If we talk about co-extrusion corks, then there is no risk with them in all categories of wines.
Nomacork produces 4 different cork sizes and different corks are recommended for a range of wines from basic to super premium. For wines of the “icon” class, the cork manufacturer does not dare to recommend its products. Therefore, if you choose wines of the upper and higher segments, there are no options, only natural cork. True, one chance in 10 that your wine can be spoiled by this very cork.