Most wine bottles have metal or plastic caps, but wines are usually sealed with cork stoppers, and a special screw-shaped corkscrew is required to open the cap. Since it is so troublesome, why not use ordinary bottle caps?
Cork is taken from the bark of European cork, mainly from Portugal. This natural material has been made into cork stoppers since ancient Greece and Roman times.
The bark of European cork is easy to obtain and can be recycled. Therefore, cork stopper is considered to be an environmentally friendly material and is still used today. Metal screw caps made of aluminum only appeared in the last century. The mining and processing of aluminum ore generates much more carbon emissions than the collection of bark.
Some wine collectors believe that the dense pores of the cork allow the wine to react delicately with the air, resulting in a more mellow flavor. But from another point of view, the metal bottle cap has better sealing properties, and the wine is not prone to oxidative deterioration.
Cork wine generally needs to be placed horizontally, so that after the cork absorbs water and expands, it can block the bottle more tightly. But after all, it is wood, and it will rot and crack from time to time after being left for too long.
The biggest problem with cork stoppers is that they may contaminate wine. Wood is organic after all. Corks contaminated by fungi will produce 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA). This chemical enters the wine and makes the wine emit the smell of wet cardboard. Some wine companies are developing technologies to remove this substance for cork stoppers.
The cost of cork stoppers is higher than that of metal bottle caps. Traditional concepts also associate high-end wine with cork stoppers, but bottle caps do not represent the quality of wine. Many high-end wines still use metal bottle caps, but in some places, in order to cater to people’s stereotypes, cork stoppers are used deliberately.
Even if it is a golden lid, it can’t cover up the fact that drinking is hurting you, and it is the drinker who pays the bill in the end.
