Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/898117
COVER STORY Portuguese farmer who explained, "'When I was 8 years old, my grandfather taught me to harvest bark from this tree and I have been back to this tree every nine years since.'" Spencer adds, "There's no way you can hear that story and not become emotionally invested in the fact that this human has a symbiotic relationship with this tree. In forestry, that doesn't exist." Cork forests are considered to be among the world's biodiversity hot spots and support a rich ecosystem of wild fauna, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). "In north Africa, Spain, and Portugal, those forests are the last firewall to complete desertification of that part of the world," says Spencer, explaining that the poor soils and harsh climate make it difficult for other plants to grow. As cork producers constantly seek to improve in the face of new challenges, de Jesus believes nature and technology needn't be viewed as separate entities. "Culture and economy can coexist; environment and people can coexist," he concludes. "That's what cork is really all about, while delivering a very strong technical solution." If the cork industry can put our mind at ease by creating a cleaner product that's also environmentally friendly, why wouldn't we ask for the real thing? Four Common Myths About Cork Patrick Spencer serves as the Executive Director for Cork ReHarvest, a 501(c)(3) that aims to educate consumers on the environmental significance of natural cork while leading the movement in cork recycling. Spencer previously worked as the sustainability director at a large Oregon winery, but after realizing he knew virtually nothing about cork despite spending several years in the business, his efforts to educate himself—and American wine drinkers as a whole— led him to Portugal. While professionals today may be aware of most of these common misconceptions about cork, they remain surprisingly prevalent among consumers. Myth #1: Cork trees are cut down to harvest cork. Cork harvesting is more like "sheep-shearing," Spencer says: You don't kill a sheep to collect the wool. Once a cork oak matures, the tree can be harvested every nine years and live for 200 years on average. Cork oaks are also protected by law in all seven cork-producing countries and can only be cut down if they have a disease that risks being spread to other trees. Myth #2: There's a cork shortage. In 2010, cork production amounted to 201,000 tons—50 percent of which was used to produce cork stoppers (one ton of cork can create 65,000 stoppers). According to Carlos de Jesus, Operational Director for APCOR's InterCork program, there are enough cork trees today to supply cork stoppers for every bottle of wine produced for the next 100 years. This common misconception was likely spurred by rumors surrounding cork blight that took place in the late 1990s, which affected a very small percentage of cork trees in Portugal. Myth #3: Screwcaps are a better for the environment because they're recyclable. Only about 20 percent of recyclable items are actively being recycled by consumers in the U.S., and not everything that goes into our "blue bins" will even be salvaged. While the metal is technically recyclable, waste management com- panies often cannot process them as their small size causes them to fall through metal grating. On the other hand, natural cork is recyclable and biodegradable, meaning it will eventu- ally decompose in a landfill. Since 2008, Cork ReHarvest and recycling program ReCORK have actively worked to not only recycle corks, but upcycle them with various partners for reuse in pulp materials, flooring, insoles, and a wide variety of other consumer products. Myth #4: TCA only comes from natural cork. Numerous studies have shown that TCA can affect a wine at many stages in production, including through barrels, hoses, and cork. "There's no way to scientifically prove how TCA gets into the bottle because it can come from any number of steps in the process," says Spencer. "But because there's a natural cork in the bottle, that becomes guilty by association." The cork industry has made significant investments in eliminating "cork taint" well beyond the threshold humans can detect, which is as little as 3–4 nanograms for still wines and 1.5–2 nanograms for sparkling. 64 / the tasting panel / november 2017