Similar issues have been raised about the carbon footstep of the production of wine using different closures, showing that cork has a lower carbon footprint. But when you start to factor in the wasted wine due to cork related issues, the neddle swings back drastically in the other direction.

And last time I checked, Aluminium was recylcable.

http://www.screwcap.co.nz/grids/index_green.asp?area=14&id=308

Becareful, there is a lot of money invested in the cork industry, and so a lot of mis-information, unintentionally or otherwise, being promoted.

Yes, I live in China and, no, it is “not something strange” for me. Also, I never claimed to be “knowledgeable” about cork. I do have an opinion on it but most of my post covers the reasons why Blass uses screw caps over cork. Re maturation, they argue that the air in the water contained in wine is sufficient to allow the wine to mature.

At the bottom of my post, I state there is an interview coming with Ricardo Duarte of Amorim, which will include questions about the environmental angle of using cork.

Incidentally, in the past week, I talked to an Australian wine writer, a French wine maker, and two people in China’s wine industry, all of whom – when it comes to quality of wine – have no problem with screw caps.

Cheers, Boyce

Screwcaps are of the worse solutions for wine closing and the world is know becoming aware of that. Not only because it is a non recyclable material, which requires huge amounts of energy to be produced, as well as it releases high CO2 quantities to the atmosphere. Do you live in China?? Is this something strange for you?? Aluminuim is a non renewable resource, and the mines from which it is extracted have a high negative impact on nature.

On the other hand, sadly this article lacks the knowledge about cork as a natural material. All the statements made are superficial, and none is proved. Cork has proven to let wine breathe, by allowing tiny quantities of oxygen to mature the wine along time. The position of the bottle (on the contrary of what was written) is not the essential issue (see the scientific studies conducted by the Bordeaux University on this). Cork is a natural resource, harvesting it promotes the development of the forest, which at the same time is a carbon sink for CO2. The Portuguese cork oak forest alone is responsible for retaining 4,8 million tons oc FO2 annually.

Cork is indeed the natural choice for a producer of natural drink such as wine. The question is wether you are relying on a quality producer of cork, which can provide you the highest technology applied to the best material available in nature. Contact the biggest in the World – Amorim – go there and watch for yorself what these guys are doing at the forest, factories, good practices, R&D, state of the art, and after that make your own conclusions. Cork is quite alive and will continue to keep us alive!