What is cork exactly?  Many know that it closes up wine bottles and can have notes tacked to it, but did you know that it is actually the bark from a Cork Oak tree?  That is why it is considered sustainable is because it can be stripped off the tree without damaging it and the plant will re-grow the bark every 9 years or so.  Now, more than a few have brought up to us in conversations about cork that it they have heard that there is a worldwide shortage of cork, citing the emerging shift of wine bottles with screw tops or plastic stoppers.  While they are partly correct, we would like to enumerate clearly what is going on in the cork world.  While it is true that wine makers have been shifting to other forms of sealing their bottles in ever greater numbers in the recent years, it has almost nothing to do with a perceived cork shortage.  In fact, cork is more widely available now than it ever has been; the shortage is in the A-grade cork and that is the cork that is used mostly for wine bottles.  The grades are separated by the amount of air pockets in any given section of cork.  A-grade is very solid cork with very few air pockets, while lower grades are more porous.  These air pockets are easily visible on a wine cork.  This has almost nothing to do with the winemakers’ shift en masse towards other forms of closure.  The big reason is because cork, relative to other means available to wine makers, is a more imperfect way to seal the bottle.  Among other things, it occasionally spoils entire bottles (by destroying the flavor) or breaks and crumbles into the wine, becoming a nuisance. It has been replaced by screw caps and plastic stoppers, both of which have potential but both are still being research to fully understand their true and long-term effects.  The cork stoppers will not go quietly as the tradition of popping the cork from a wine bottle is cherished by many.

As far as Sustainable Flooring is concerned, we can use any grade of cork for any of our materials so the increase in overall production of cork is only a boon for our company and we are able to say with certainty that we do not have one bit of “cork conflict of interest.”  As for the wine debate?  Well, we have a fondness for both camps given our love for cork and our love for unspoiled wines.  At least it makes for some lively conversation!

Tags: bottles, Cork, grade, sustainablility, wine