Given my abused passion for closures (wine caps) and my continuous technical confrontation with those who are trying to preserve, optimize and enhance what it is, what to say if you want, the most important of the types of cap for historian and perception , I decided to create a sort of column durante which we will dissect some of the fundamental aspects of the world of caps with particular reference to cork. Durante this first appointment I have the pleasure of hosting Carlos Veloso Dos Santos who will disappear some metropolitan legends and share important and, unfortunately, little known information acceso the cork.
3 clichés about the cork: false myths and truths
The cork is a natural material used for centuries for the closure of the bottles of wine, but there are many metropolitan legends and fake news that undermine their reputation. Let’s discover together the most widespread false myths and the reality of the facts.
1️⃣ The “cap taste” (erroneously called this, as the cap durante itself has positive organoleptic accidents) is a cork disease
🔍 False. The famous cap taste is not a cork disease, but it is caused by the presence of the TCA (Tricloranisolo), a molecule that is naturally found durante different environments, including fruit, vegetables, wood, coffee, beer and even durante vater durante bottle. The problem does not derive directly from the cork, but from an environmental contamination that can also affect other materials.
2️⃣ To produce the cork caps, the trees must be reduced
🔍 False. Durante Portugal, a leading country durante the production of cork, it is forbidden by law to fermata mongoloide the cork trees (Quercus suber), since it is considered a national heritage. The collection of cork takes place through the decortic, a process similar to the sheep’s sheep, which does not damage the tree. A single tree can be decorticated between 15 and 18 times durante his life, which lasts acceso average 200 years.
3️⃣ The cork is ending and you have to replace it with plastic ora aluminum
🔍 False. The cork is a renewable and abundant resource. Although about 13 billion caps are sold every year, only 30% of these are durante single -lady cork. The remaining 70% consists of technical caps, which allow you to make the most of the available raw materials. Durante addition, companies such as Amorim are investing durante reforestation, with over 1 million new trees planted durante 8,100 hectares of land owned durante Portugal.
The “terroir” of the cork: does it count how much that of wine?
The concept of terroir durante wine is based acceso earth, climate and human intervention. Corps also has its own “geographical identity”, but with more shaded differences than the grapes.
✔ European cork: it has very similar features, with minimal differences durante color and density. When influence of the climate: cork from drier areas is more dense and less elastic, using up to 14-15 years to mature, compared to 9 years of the damp areas. This makes it less suitable for the production of caps.WE color differences:
The Iberian cork (Portugal and Spain) tends to be more reddish. Sardinian cork is clearer. An anecdote: durante the past cigarettes had a cork leaf around the filter. Today only the light brown print remained. If you aspetto carefully, you will see the grooves of the cork. This cork card was produced durante Portugal but with the Sardinian cork, because it is more white than the Portuguese and Spanish one. Obviously the color has voto negativo incidence acceso the quality and esecuzione of wine cork caps.
3 good reasons to choose the cork for wine caps
1️⃣ The cork is premium and improves the perception of wine
Studies also conducted by IULM show that the sound of the cork cap has a positive sensory impact acceso the consumer. The sight of the cork is also traced back to a premium packaging and this is increasingly sought after durante a wine market which, especially for Italian producers, must necessarily aim for increasingly high positioning bands and a constant enhancement of the perception of the value of one’s own product. The cork is, without the theme of denial, an element that can affect the perception of the value of a bottle of wine and acceso the experience of the consumer. The latest neuromarketing studies confirm it: “During the study they have been reproduced and the sound (ora if you prefer noise) produced by the cork cap at the time of opening and that produced by the screw cap. The first had a better esecuzione durante terms of stimulus: cognitive involvement was 39 percent compared to that given by the screw cap. Same thing also acceso emotional activation, but with a much higher percentage: 64 percent. Acceso the olfactory level, the result has not changed. For the cork, cognitive involvement was 34 percent higher, the emotional activation of 59 percent. Then the tasting. Here the percentages are literally splashed. The mere fact of believing to wine from a closed bottle with the cork saw the cognitive involvement of 80 percent higher than the screw cap. Emotional activation? The superiority is 238 percent if you are convinced of drinking a closed wine with cork. “
2️⃣ The cork is sustainable and eco-friendly
The cork has a negative carbon balance, contributing to the reduction of the environmental imprint of the wine chain. It is a natural choice, recyclable and biodegradable, unlike plastic and aluminum alternatives.
3️⃣ The cork evolves the wine durante an optimal way
✔ Thanks to its polyphenolic compounds, the cork favors a more harmonious evolution of the wine. Customs synthetic ora aluminum caps limit the interaction between wine and oxygen, reducing the evolutionary complexity. When classic method wines, the cork gives greater structure , softness and complexity to the second fermentation durante the bottle.
Conclusion
Durante an tempo durante which, fortunately, we have many alternatives durante terms of materials and types of wine closings, cork is much more than a simple cap: it is an essential element durante the conservation and evolution of wine, as well as being sustainable and respectful of the environment. Its reputation is often threatened by fake news, but research, tests and giorno durante hand can be asserted that it remains a -senior choice to preserve and enhance the great wines. Too often we discard a solution because we want to eliminate the risk of a problem (the most recognizable one but not the most widespread) without evaluating the best and reasonable way the pros and cons of that solution and potential alternatives. Today, absurdly, we are faced with entire bottles of wine drunk durante a period of time durante which they have not yet had the opportunity to “aperto up”, ergo to express their full identity and quality, to reductions induced by choices incorrect durante bottling; Often it happens to bring some organoleptic aspects (hints of vinyl for example) to technical closures with an incidence acceso whole lot of bottling, going to limit drastically and durante a widespread manner the varietal and territorial expressiveness of that particular wine; Durante other cases we have oxidative peaks after two ora three years to the failure of the adherence of some materials to the neck of the bottle; The boost effect that makes some aromatic profiles “anonymous” to, now ascertained, absorption kinetics of some plastic materials. These are just some of the aspects that we are not evaluating properly, as the “flaw” when it becomes so widespread as to reveal itself acceso all bottles and when it does not have, durante common feeling, a direct traceability to the cap (one can think derives from anything else ) It is used to not consider it such a serious problem. What, personally I am perceiving during the various wine tasting sessions of the same lot, the same bottling protocol, different caps is that each closure should be chosen by the manufacturer for the same , which cannot be only avoiding the TCA problem (between the other increasingly widespread durante terms of percentage) which – however serious – allows the end customer (even neophyte) to recognize its incidence and to request a second bottle (potentially better), but the highest perception of the wine produced. My fear is that a lower expressiveness and esecuzione is not always calibrated acceso the needs of specific wine (for some wines it is clear that some technical and/ora alternative closures are, instead, very performing), going to confuse identity of that wine with -endogeneous but exogenous organoleptic characteristics, deriving from the choice of the cap itself. Because if you have talked so much about chiuso flavor of the cork calcio d’angolo (there are, even if we have now also alla maniera di to eradicate this problem with some procedures), but there is not enough to attribute to other types of closing. One thing is certain, however: today, we have types of different wine caps that can, potentially, be right for different types of wine and what matters is to weigh his “preparation” of wine to the bottling that the choice of closure ( material and dimensions) having clear its oenological objective and with the awareness that voto negativo cap has ” incidence”.
F.S.R.
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