People enjoy sipping wine. Many love discussing it too. George M. Taber, the author of an informative book, To Cork or Not To Cork, Tradition, Romance, Science and the Battle For the Wine Bottle (2007, Scribner, 278 pages), savors the debates.
Wine experts dispute how best to seal the bottles. For centuries, corks did the job. But in the 1970s, trials began with plastic-or-glass covers, even screw-caps. There’s talk of inventing new bottle closures. Taber tries to examine all the options.
The stakes look high, especially for “the cork industry”. It’s an “emotional multibillion-dollar battle for the bottle”. Each year, billions of bottles need closing. “…an epic confrontation is now taking place. Arrayed to slug it out, in the struggle where only a few closures will survive, are both giant corporations such as Alcoa, Amorim and Alcan and small companies hoping to capture their tiny piece of a lucrative market.”
Cork’s once-dominant position still weakens. “Today cork companies are fighting for their lives, and the outcome of that struggle is anything but certain. It is not unthinkable that the use of corks in wine bottles will go the same way as their use in medicine and beer containers did early in the 20th century.”
The ceremony and romance of popping corks still appeals. “In the entire world, only a few sounds bring joy to all but the most jaded. One is the purring of a kitten. Another is the thwack of a well-pitched baseball hitting a perfectly swung bat. And the third is the pop of a cork being pulled from a bottle of wine.”
But there’s an “obscure chemical compound known as TCA. In amounts as low as several parts per trillion, it can make a $400 bottle of wine smell like wet newspaper and taste equally bad. Such wine is said to be ‘corked’.”
“Cork taint poses no health threat to the consumer, but it can still ruin a wine experience. Today the purpose of the ritual of tasting a little wine from a bottle in a restaurant before accepting it is to see whether the wine is corked. To cork’s critics, the failure rate is both outrageous and unacceptable. They repeatedly argue that if three to five per cent of Toyota cars or IBM computers failed, those companies would be out of business.”
Modestly, Taber, a former Time magazine staffer living in Rhode Island, calls himself a “dedicated wine enthusiast”. What an understatement! In 2005, his earlier book, Judgment of Paris, told of a 1976 wine-tasting showdown when California wines surpassed French ones, a “turning point in wine history”. Judgment of Paris won book-of-the-year accolades from Decanter magazine in Britain.
The author knows the history, science and nuances of wine, covering them well. “By the end of the 18th century, the bottle, the cork and the corkscrew had opened a new age in wine history. For the first time since the Romans with their tightly sealed amphoras, it was possible to enjoy aged wine. Consumers no longer had to drink wine in a hurry before it spoiled.”
Like a lovable, storytelling uncle, Taber selects from a nearly endless repertoire of insider anecdotes. “Laube sniffed the wine, took a sip, and then said that he thought it was corked. To Arnold, it was like taking a cannonball in the stomach….”
The author’s knowledge spans the globe: “Screw-caps had an almost inherent appeal in New Zealand…. New Zealanders aren’t weighed down by a lot of tradition because they don’t have much. They came late to the international wine business….”
Despite its fine vintage, To Cork or Not To Cork isn’t for everyone. Most wine drinkers don’t want all the details that Taber gleefully tells. But wine collectors and “connoisseurs” should be enchanted from start to finish.
Approval rating: 64 per cent.
For more information: www.simonsays.com
(April 21, 2008)
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