Cork is the most common bottle stopper used for wine (80% of all bottled wines).

What is cork? 

It is a natural product, the bark of the Cork  Oak, Quercus suber. The cork oak grows in Mediterranean countries, Portugal being the largest producer of cork (50% of the global production). 

The natural qualities of cork, near impermeability, buoyancy and elasticity, make it very suitable to stop bottles of wine. 

The use of cork is fairly recent in the wine world, its use was introduced in the 17th century, by vintners such as Dom Pérignon.  

Corked wines

Cork is also partly responsible for the taste of cork in wines or Corked Wines. The taste of cork is due to the presence of Trichloroanisol (TCA) in the cork and in the wine. Human beings are extremely sensitive to TCA and can detect it at infinitesimal concentrations in the wine (2 or 3 Nanograms per Liter!). 

Corked wines became an worrisome problem for wine producers in the 80's and in the 90's, when the production of bottled wine increased dramatically (with New World production and new markets) and the need for cork jumped to the roof. The producers could not respond to the brutal increase in the demand because it takes 25 years for an cork oak to grow and it then can only be harvested every 9 years. 

Alternative to cork

The problem of corked wines led the New Wold producers to use alternative to cork, such as screw caps, synthetic corks or class caps. French wines producers, especially red wine producers are reluctant to adopt alternative stopping systems. The domestic market remains rather conservative and associate cork with quality wines and screw tops with cheap wines. The natural qualities of cork also have a strong influence on the aging of wines in the bottle. 

Domaine Laroche in Chablis is one of the first prominent French producers to systematically use screw tops: