A California Winery Blog

The International Herald Tribune writes that “Makers of wine corks say they’ve cured ‘taint’.” Cork taint is the winemaker’s nemesis. After nursing a wine through fermentation, barrel aging and bottling, a sometimes two year process, and have the wine spoilt by a bad cork is enough to frustrate any winemaker.

Cork makers, facing declining sales, have been scrambling to find a way to eliminate this problem. The declining sales come from competition and acceptance of new closures — screwcaps and glass stoppers, well designed and in the case of the new glass stoppers — claims to have the same beneficial effect as cork. That, of course, remains to be seen, but the new competition is moving the cork makers from their complacency and cork taint may eventually become a quaint curiosity.

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