Wine Corks Fight Off Alternative Stoppers
By: David LidskySeptember 1, 2010 The radical reinvention of the once-humble cork.
Each wine cork tells a story: A weekend in Maine, a silly party, a proposal served up with Champagne. But nothing ruins a night like wine tainted by rotten cork. Some 300 million bottles a year — about 2% of all wine — are “corked,” leading the industry to experiment with alternatives.
Synthetic corks can require Herculean strength to get out. Easy-opening screw caps — about 10% of the market — have all the romance of parking-lot drinking. Glass stoppers “will not give you taint,” says Kyle Rossler, a VP at Encore Glass, which distributes Vino-Seal glass closures. But glass is pricey, and it’s “popular in Germany,” making it the David Hasselhoff of wine closures.
“Anyone who’s gone away from cork wants to come back,” says Erin Grace, director of imports at the distributor Winebow.