Guess what time it is? It’s the biannual ritual of talking about closures again. This is the time of the year when we state our preference for one over another - bitching and moaning about TCA taint, reduction or sticky plastic corks. Why do we do this? Well, it’s an easy topic and usually gets people riled up, while at the same time, making us feel that we are finally standing up for something.

Here at Catavino, our thinking has evolved from an off and on hate relationship with cork to more of a friend with fringe benefits. Currently, we’re on good standing, but aren’t quite ready to exchange house keys and buy matching travel luggage. We love the idea of cork, and its sustainable properties, but we still love our screwcaps for those fresh whites and young reds. Much to our chagrin, however, we’re finding more and more plastic corks here in Spain, and only one or two screwcap wines.

So let us state for the record that WE HATE plastic corks, and if there are bodegas out …

Last summer, during our whirlwind tour of Portugal, we had the rather unique experience of touring a cork factory. With the all the debate raging about cork versus screwcap, we jumped on the opportunity to meet the Marketing and Communications Director of Amorim, the largest cork producer in the world to find out why TCA is an issue, what Amorim’s position was on the situation, and what steps they were taking to prevent it. What we never considered during our visit with Carlos de Jesus, was the cork oak’s positive effect in sustainable development, other than the company’s efforts to obtain 45% of their energy from renewable sources.

Now, almost a year later, we find out that Amorim sent Carlos de Jesus as a speaker at the conference on the role of cork in CO2-retention, preserving biodiversity and combating desertification. Who knew?! Alright, in all fairness, we did have a pretty good idea that the vast forests of cork oaks throughout Spain and Portugal were positively effecting the planet, but we didn’t know to what degree. Both in his speech and in his interview, Carlos brings to light some additional statistics on how cork can aid in the fight against climate change, providing us even more questions to ponder once the conference was over.

Although we haven’t chatted a significant amount on Catavino about cork’s role in sustainable development, we understand that you may have several questions about this issue. Therefore, please feel free to leave any questions you have below, and we’ll do our best to answer them.

Cheers,
Gabriella

Video content from the conference was produced by Richard Gillespie please contact us if you are interested in hiring Richard for your next project.