Word: corks
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Champagne cork hasn't changed for 150 years, so I think it's high time we evolved a bit," says Carol Duval-Leroy, head of Champagne Duval-Leroy, the first Champagne house to trial Maestro-capped bottles. But despite a pressing need for cork alternatives, it may be a while before that spirit of change catches on. (See pictures of beer being brewed...
...producers like Michel Drappier, the man behind Champagne Drappier, the Maestro seems sensible enough, but he remains attached to the "weight of history and image" behind the traditional Champagne cork. "I'll admit I find this system rather seductive. I have no qualitative arguments against it," he says. "But I have one big reserve - I feel the romantic side of Champagne is badly bruised...
...Despite the mystique the Champenois attach to that pop and whiz of the cork, theirs has long been a love-hate relationship - one that the Maestro aims to help smooth over. While the Maestro's ease of use is certainly a selling point, the new stopper's real advantage over cork closures is as a solution to TCA (2,4,6-trichloroanisole), the molecule that when present in cork is responsible for wine taint. "TCA is the great scourge of wine," says Peter Liem, the Épernay-based founder of champagneguide.net. "The problem is grave enough that it's becoming...
...Some Champagne producers are starting to agree. Recently, variations on the traditional Champagne cork have been appearing on the market, from the cork by Cortex Company, which has a silicon disk fixed to its bottom to prevent contact with wine, to the Mytik Diamant composite cork. "Our clients don't want to take risks anymore with traditional corks that may be tainted," says Benoît Ecrepont, director-general of Sibel, Mytik Diamant's manufacturer. By employing compressed, heated CO2 in a process similar to the decaffeination of coffee, the unwanted molecules are extracted from natural cork to make...
...those taking the next step, to noncork stoppers, it's not just about TCA. Duval-Leroy says another reason she's turning to the Maestro is that she doesn't want to gamble her production on the long-term survival of the world's cork forests. "It's frankly worrisome to think that you have a million bottles in the cellar and there could be an ecological catastrophe and you'd have no alternative closures," she says. (See "Champagne's Bubbly Personalities...