To Cork Or Not To Cork?

In the world of wine, the phrase “put a cork in it” doesn’t always ring true anymore. Sure, corks have been around for ages and will continue to be around for ages to come, but the standard wine stopper is facing increasing competition. Like most of you, I love the popping sound of the cork being pulled from a favorite bottle of wine, but if you’ve ever broken a cork while trying to open a bottle, or worse, popped the cork on a favorite bottle only to find it has suffered cork taint, you may have thought there must be a better way to seal a wine bottle.
“Cork taint” is the term used for a chemical compound known as 2,4,6 trichloroanisole, or TCA, that can develop on cork. It gives wine an odor most often described as wet newspaper and it can render a tainted bottle undrinkable. Cork makers screen rigorously for TCA, but occasionally, tainted corks get through. In fact, in his book, “To Cork or Not to Cork, Tradition, Romance, Science and the Battle for the Wine Bottle,” George Taber tells how a cork taint problem at The David Bruce Winery in 1987 cost the winery $2 million in lost business and untold amounts in customer loyalty.  
By now, most people are familiar with synthetic corks and screw caps but there are few new stoppers on the market vying to take the place of the venerable cork. At Whitehall Lane Winery in Napa Valley, they’ve turned to glass to solve their problems with cork taint. Whitehall became the first winery in the world to seal bottles of its premium wine with the Alcoa developed Vino-Seal closure. The glass stoppers are elegant T-shaped closures, a little bit like what you might find atop a decanter. Inert o-rings at the top of the stopper seal the bottle, and according Vino-Seal, prevent oxidation or contamination of the wine. Once taken off, the glass closure can easily be put back on with the same amount of tightness that it has previously. A similar Vino-Lok, also made by Alcoa, is being used by 350 wineries in Europe. The one difference is that Vino-Seal has a tin capsule packaging over the glass stopper and Vino-Lok has an aluminum cover cap.
 So far, Whitehall Lane is happy with the glass stoppers. They’ve been putting the glass stoppers on their reserve Cabernet Sauvignon since the 2003 vintage. Winemaker Dean Sylvester says the wines sealed with glass are showing well and that if everything continues as expected, they’ll begin using Vino-Seal on even more of their wines. The stoppers have an elegant look, but tasting room manager Tony Leonardi says they’ve put the glass closures to the test and they’re tougher than you might think. “You can hold it by the stopper, you can turn it upside down and shake it. We don’t recommend that but if you were to shake it, the wine would stay in,” says Tony. They’ve also found the glass stoppers to be surprisingly durable, “We’ve dropped them on the floor a couple of times by accident and they made it; they did not break.”
I received a bottle of Bravante Sauvignon Blanc for Christmas and was excited to see it also came with a glass stopper. Naturally, I had to put the stopper to the test, ala Tony Leonardi at Whitehall Lane, though I’ll admit that when I shook the bottle upside down, I did it over our sink. But I needn’t have worried, the glass closure stayed put, not a drop was spilled. I also noticed the glass closures make a pleasing popping sound, every time you pull them from the bottle. One thing they don’t do though, is fit onto other bottles. After we drank the Bravante at home, I hung on to the glass closure thinking I would be able to use it on other bottles, but that’s not the case. The glass stoppers and their o-rings are designed to uniquely fit the bottles for which they are made.  
“Zork” sounds like something Velma might say on Scooby Do, but it’s actually the name of another newcomer on the wine closure scene. The Zork closure was invented in Australia and hit the market there in 2004. It’s billed as featuring the convenience of a screw cap with the celebration of a cork because when you open a bottle sealed with a Zork, it pops, much like a cork. Zorks are made of polyethylene plastic. There are three parts to the Zork, the plastic stopper (or plunger as the Zork folks put it) that fits inside the bottle, an inner metal foil that keeps oxygen out of the wine, and an outer plastic cap that fits around the neck of the bottle. To open a bottle, you peel a plastic tab at the base of the closure. It unwinds until you get to the top of the bottle.  Then, you simply pull the cap/stopper with a twist and you hear a nice pop as the bottle is opened. Like the Vino-Seal glass stoppers, Zorks can reseal a bottle after it’s been opened, but will only fit into the bottle for which they are made.
Zork closures are catching on because like glass stoppers and screw caps, they eliminate the problem of cork taint. Beth Cozza, the marketing director for Zork USA says “Zork is not equated with cheap wine so it doesn’t have the emotional baggage that some of the other alternatives have.”
You’ll find Zork closures on some Don Sebastiani & Sons wines including Hey Mambo, Le Bon Vin and Plungerheard, a brand allegedly created for, and inspired by, the Zork. According to the manufacturer, Zorks are designed to work on existing bottling lines with minor modifications. And because the capsule and the stopper are all one piece, the closures simply snap on to the top of a bottle.
From screw caps, to glass stoppers to Zorks, the new closures are definitely giving cork some competition, but chances are there will always be a market for corks. Whether it is the romance or the ritual of popping a cork, many people wouldn’t want anything but cork sealing their favorite wines. Still, the new crop of glass and plastic stoppers prove sealing a wine bottle can be fun as well as functional. Cheers!