THE BATTLE OF THE CORK CONTINUES TO DIVIDE THE ITALIAN WINE WORLD: THE MINSTER OF AGRICULTURE AND SOMMELIER DEFEND THE “REAL” CORK ; FEDERVINI AND NUMEROUS PRODUCERS DEFEND SYNTHETIC CORKS

For some time now, the rest of the world has accepted synthetic wine corks, which, to their advantage, do avoid the problem of “corked” wines or, wines that have been tainted by the smell of cork-wood corks. In Italy, though some producers do use synthetic corks, the Italian Wine Union (Uiv) and Federvini have now requested that they be allowed for corking DOC Italian wines as well.

”The flexibility that we request is only for DOC wines, and not DOCG” – explained Federvini – “keeping in mind that these products can go to consumers that are less connected to the traditions of the producing countries. We think it is fair that this flexibility can find space in the disciplinary. On the other hand, if we made everything flexible, even the DOCG wines, which represent the category of highest qualification for our wines, it would become even more complex in indicating to consumers the various levels of the pyramid of controls”.

The Minister of Agriculture and the Head Office for the Quality of Food Products have, however, given a negative opinion in response to the request. “The only concession that we have been able to get” – reported Paolo Castelletti, the General Secretary of Uiv – “is that of allowing alternative corking for some types of DOC, with the exclusion of reserves and superior quality”.

”This position” – observed Ernest Abbona, President of Marchesi di Barolo – “puts us at odds with global distribution, which is protesting over our insistence on using cork-wood corks, a method that causes a discarding of about 10 per cent due to a cork flavor”.

It appears that there are more than a few interested parties hoping that the disciplinary will give producers more freedom to decide which type of cork to use because world markets demand synthetic corks. The use of cork-wood penalizes, for example, Italy’s exports to countries like Britain where it has become common use for wines to have screw-off tops.
But, the Italian Sommelier do point out that, “In Italy, wine has been bottled traditionally with glass and cork-wood since the 1700’s”.

It will now be up to the UE, whose presidency is currently in the hands of Portugal (producer of over half of the EU’s total cork-wood supply), to decide which is the right path to take.