von Schmitt

Please welcome Alesha Vanata to vonschmitt.com

We’re excited to have Alesha Vanata blogging about lifestyle interests for von Schmitt.  Alesha grew up in upstate New York and Northern Virginia and has lived in Los Angeles since 2000. Her personal interests include wine, food, cooking, B-rate horror movies and collecting vinyl and cookbooks along with entertaining friends. Alesha’s modern eye for the traditional translates well into her work as a food stylist and designer for film and TV. Alesha’s first post here, To Cork or Not To Cork, details the evolution of something most of us take for granted. 

-JVS

To Cork Or Not To Cork

I will never forget the day a bottle of wine changed my life, the exact moment I realized that the fermented grape juice I was drinking was much more than just a teeth-staining, delicious libation.  It was the evening that I realized that the opening of a bottle of wine, had as much to do with the experience, as drinking the wine itself.   I imagine that there are many factors that led up to this life changing, explosive moment.  But, when all of the varietals aligned, wine drinking became a lesson in tradition and history, as well as a lifestyle. 

It all began with a simple slice of the foil around the lower lip of a bottle of 1969 Chateau Laroque (which I bought at auction), uncovering the eye of a stunning thirty-five-year-old cork.  A precise trace around the mouth with the knife of my wine key and the cork was ready to be coaxed out of its resting place.  With anticipation building, I slowly dove the corkscrew into the center of the tender cork, gently twisting until the worm was almost completely submerged.  Delicately I placed the level on the lip of the bottle and gingerly began pulling out the cork.

Having worked in restaurants for the better part of my life, I’ve had the opportunity to open hundreds, if not thousands of bottles of wine.  But it was uncorking this bottle that brought to light the importance of what the cork represents and the knowledge it carries with it.

Natural cork has been used to seal wine bottles since the 1600’s.  It is made from the bark of the Cork Oak. These majestic tree’s life span can exceed 200 years.  One tree can be harvested a dozen times in the course of its life.  The majority of cork is manufactured in Portugal and Spain as the oaks thrive in a warm dry climate.  But cork has come under attack in recent years due to cork taint caused by the presence of a chemical called trichloroanisole or TCA.  Presently, winemakers have several other options in wine closures.  While natural cork is still predominant, alternative closures are beginning to find popularity. 

Synthetic cork, made from plastic and originating in Washington State, keeps with tradition but yields the highest percentage of oxidation in wines and is not biodegradable. Resulting in a lot of tainted wine and even more plastic objects that will never go away.

The vino-seal is a relatively new wine closure, which is made of glass.  Perhaps the most elegant of all the new wine closures, it has not found its way into the mainstream market due to its high cost of manufacturing and the cost of manual bottling, due to the lack of compatible machinery outside of Europe.

Another option is the ZORK®, the sexiest of the new closures I have seen.  It’s reminiscent of the Maker’s Mark bottle top. You peel it, and then pop it open.  The Zork uses the sealing technology of a screw top closure while delivering a pop when it’s removed from the bottle.  The zork has only been on the market since 2005, and a sparkling wine closure is due out in 2009.  A product of Adelaide, South Australia, it’s made up of 100% recyclable polyethylene and is reusable.   

Screw top closures have become much more common over the last few years. Many innovations have been made around the original, which was developed in New Zealand in the 1970’s.  The screw top offers a tighter seal than natural cork and can keep oxygen out of the wine for a longer period of time.   A blessing for wines that are meant to be drank right away, however it will be years before we have any data on the screw top’s ability to age a wine.  Screw tops are quick, convenient and effortless.  Without the need for a corkscrew or wine key to open a bottle, wine becomes more accessible and immediately gratifying.  Still, there is no romance in screwing off an aluminum cap.  While a screw top may bring fond memories of high school shenanigans with a bottle of Boone’s Farm or Mad Dog 20/20, it does not hold the same reverie as sliding out a natural cork. 

The market will dictate which closures will succeed or fail.  As young wine makers take the reigns from the old, let’s hope they will remember to keep the traditions that have been passed down to them.  Natural cork embodies centuries of tradition.  From its birth as tree bark, to the years it spends in a bottleneck, the natural cork should not be dismissed or left by the wayside.   One little cork holds knowledge and practice that has been passed from generation to generation. In a world of innovation, a little tradition goes along way. 

-Alesha Vanata

Here’s a video to show you how the ZORK® works.