For The Love Of Port

All this talk about leakers made me wonder about the longevity of corks. Are all corks the same? Do some wine makers use better corks than others? What's the average life span of a cork? Any answers?

Interesting topic Steve. Clearly there are some producers putting better corks than others. I've opened a few Noval 2003 this week-end and I was really shocked to see their tiny cork. Same thing applies to Vesuvio, they use the same cork as for half bottles. I tried a few times to get an answer for that and I could not find anything better than cost reduction. On the other side, Niepoort uses great quality cork, same quality as Bordeaux 1st Growth and it is nothing else you should expect from these top quality Port.

Seeing that I was very concern about the longevity of these tiny corks.

Are all corks the same?

No, not all are the same. There are corks of different size and quality. Some are all natural cork, some are a combination of synthetic and natural, then there are several types of synthetic corks. Here is a link that will explain better than I can. http://www.corkqc.com/

Do some wine makers use better corks than others?

Yes they do. A few weeks ago I made a trip to the Santa Cruz Mountains (California) to visit friends. Both my friend and his dad are in the wine business, He works for Ridge Wines and his dad now has his own vine business. I was talking to them about this same issue. In the US, the difference betweent the most expenisve cork and the lesser, more commonly used cork is about $0.50-0.75 per cork. That is less than a dollar a cork. Doesn't sound like much, but if you are making ten of thousands of bottles then that little costs adds up real fast. If your making smaller quantity, more expensive bottles, then the costs of a better quality cork is not that big of a deal. Not to mention the highest quality cork is MUCH better than a cheaper cork. Typically the best corks are significantly longer than the cheaper ones and have less "visual" problems. (refer to the website above).

As for life span. That depends on a lot of factors, such as quality of cork, storage conditions, etc. The oldest cork I have pulled out was from a 1947 Margaux and although it was the bottom part was starting to shrink, the top 1/2 was still sealing perfectly.