New World Wine


Feature Writer: Alan Boehmer
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Columbia Valley Syrah, Alan Boehmer
feature articles
Alan Boehmer

High-Altitude Napa Valley Wine

In: New World Wine (general)

Do grapes grown at higher altitudes yield a different kind of wine? more...

Great California Chenin Blanc

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Is California Chenin Blanc becoming competitive with Vouvray? more...

Santa Lucia Highlands

In: New World Wine (general)

Wine Artisans of Santa Lucia Highlands offers a sampling of their splendid wines to the media and public in San Francisco. more...

Wine Touring in Santa Barbara CA

In: New World Wine (general)

Santa Barbara County is maturing as one of America's premiere winegrowing regions. more...

The Mystery of Château Pétrus

In: New World Wine (general)

Why Château Pétrus is unique and distinct from other Grand Cru vineyards nearby, such as Ausone and Cheval Blanc. more...

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Alan Boehmer

May 12, 2008

Cork Recycling

Portugal's largest wine cork producers introduce a bold recycling program to Oregon and Northern California.


Amorim & Irmãos of Portugal, the world’s largest producer of natural cork wine closures (over 3 billion annually) and their U.S. sales offices, and Anorim and Portocork America, have instituted a pilot program in California and the Pacific Northwest to recycle natural cork wine closures.

Natural cork offers advantages over all other wine bottle closures, along with a few serious disadvantages. Between 5-9% of all wine sealed by natural cork will be affected by TCA, or cork taint. These wines are ruined. However, this year a French company, Oeneo-Bouchage, introduced the first taint-free cork—DIAM—now in use by some of Alsace's largest wineries. This may signal a move away from synthetic closures.

Amorim's ReCork America program has set up recycling centers in several wine regions, including Napa Valley, along with a convenient recycling program. The used corks are placed in the same bags used to deliver fresh corks and trucked by the recycler to a processing plant where the material is prepared for use in floor tiles, building insulation and gardening products. A company is Missouri is producing attractive flooring made from recycled corks and has already partnered with ReCORK to pay for transportation.

Natural cork is a fully sustainable agricultural product. The bark is stripped from cork oak trees once every nine years; the trees live for around 200 years. Natural cork is the closure of choice for all the world's finest wines.

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