The Great Cork Debate

Outside of the old world versus new world wine discussion, perhaps nothing is as divisive within the industry as the choice between natural cork, synthetic cork as I’ll call it and of course screw caps. Of course most studies show that consumers for the most part could care less as long as the wine is still good and that it aged as they expected.

Natural cork has had a sort of renaissance, in my humble opinion, because of a series of outstanding marketing messages, namely among them that natural cork is more environmentally friendly. While synthetic cork has largely talked about the percentage of wine which spoils with natural cork, it’s hard to sell a negative over the long term.

What closure do I prefer? I do think there is some real value for restaurants and bars in screw caps which can save a busy bartender or waitress at least 45 seconds per opening, but anything not being sold as a by the glass wine I think natural cork is a clear choice. I think the wine industry benefits from the romance of cork and the process of opening a bottle, especially since you never know exactly what you’re going to find. I think consumers are happy to come across the small, small percentage of cork’d bottles in order to have an outstanding experience with their wine.

Read more at PR Newswire.