Much Ado About Something
Submitted by THE WINE SCHOOL OF PHILADELPHIA
“The market for wine-bottle closures is a $4 billion battlefield where an epic confrontation is now taking place.” - George Taber, from To Cork or Not To Cork: Tradition, Romance, Science, and the Battle for the Wine Bottle
The much-needed discussion about wine closures is upon us and none other than George M. Taber has come along to provide us readers with new-found knowledge of all things having to do with closures; the wine being kept under said closures; and, of course, the many people behind the controversy. And when the highly astute Taber turns his lens upon a subject, a fascinating read is bound to be at hand. No other writer could bring the cork controversy to life quite like him. Former reporter and editor of Time Magazine, Taber is no stranger to wine. His fine book Judgement in Paris first came into being as a four paragraph article in the 1970s, and it outlines in great detail the moment when California bested the great French wines of Burgundy in France’s capital.
For many unquaffing folk, a book on cork may seem extraordinary. And to date, never have closures – and their respective stories – been drawn in such fascinating light. (It is believed that “cork” makes its first appearance in the English language in Shakespeare’s As You Like It – one of the many interesting tidbits Taber offers up in his book).
Taber is an insightful man, with a journalist’s acumen and an avid curiosity. He is unafraid to tackle controversial subjects and began his research on the cork when the wine industry was still covering up the percentage of cork taint they were experiencing and the race to create a better closure was beginning. Along the way Taber reveals that cork taint taint the only problem affecting wines (screwcaps, we find, have flaws of their own), and that a greater problem lies in the fact that so very little is known – to date - about the chemistry of wine. With so many people on so many sides of the debate espousing differing opinions rife with passion, there is bound to be drama. And folly. And To Cork or Not To Cork does not disappoint. Reporter that he is, Taber does not shy away from showing us how people in the business too often ignore science and make up statistics simply to boost their own deeply-embedded opinions on the perfect closure. As it were, there happens to be something to be said for cork. As there does for screwcaps. As there does for glass. (Not so much for plastic). Taber sums it up best when stating at book’s end that wine should be judged by the quality of the product, not by its container. And that various industries – at present - are no longer accepting so many wines going bad under many different closures is a very good thing.
As to the question? It is finally under continued discussion. And that, in itself, is some kind of answer.
“I would thou couldst
stammer, that thou mightst pour this concealed man
out of thy mouth, as wine comes out of a narrow-mouthed bottle,
either too much at once, or none at
all. I pray thee, take the cork out of thy mouth that
I may drink thy tidings.”
As You Like It, Act III, sc. 2 To Cork or Not To Cork, George M. Taber, Scribner 2007
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