Happs & Three Hills - Is cork the best stopper?

Is cork still the best stopper?

A winter scene

View this current article on preference survey results on the cork versus screw top debate both overseas and in Australia.

A winemakers viewpoint on the problems involved in using cork as a stopper for his bottles in the framework of a reply to a complaint that bottles are leaking.

Mr. and Mrs. X
Hades St.
Marble Bar. (Western Australia's hottest town)

Dear Mr. and Mrs. X

What you describe in terms of three bottles of wine 'going off' is quite simply beyond my experience. Port is indestructible, with or without air. Leakage past the cork is a common travail in warm cellaring conditions but would require some years before the wine flavour was affected. We use bottles with leaky corks in our cellar as our tasting stock. Though we value them less and occasionally sell them at a discount, we have never found that the wine is affected. Wine is commonly sold at auction with levels as low as 'low shoulder'. The expectation and experience is that the wine is normally fine. Wine, you see has a tendency to lose its carbon dioxide which, especially with white wines provides a slight but effective pressure within which prevents the ingress of air. Cork is a natural product, the bark of a tree, its sealing properties vary from one cork to another, quite inferior in fact to many other closures including the crown seal used on beer bottles.

In for lunch

On the positive side, cork does make a subtle and usually positive contribution to the aroma of a wine not unlike a wooden barrel. I prefer the aromas of cork to those of the synthetic imitations that I have seen. Another plus is the certainty that, one way or another, you will be able to extract a cork out of, or in the absence of a corkscrew, push it into, the bottle without actually breaking same. I have not always had the same satisfaction with the synthetic alternatives which have been known to set, concrete like, in the neck.

Cork taint is the mouldy character you sometimes find in a wine that is imparted by cork. Fortunately it is increasingly rare as the cork industry improves its handling practices. However it has been known to affect up to three percent of a batch of corks. Unfortunately we don't know which ones are bad until we use them.

Rest assured however, that we stand ready to replace or refund at your discretion.

All the best,

Erl Happ