by Walter Gilpin, Domaine de la Vivonne, 2000

– Plant a cork oak tree.

– Wait 30 years.

– Remove the bark and discard it. This is the first-growth bark.

– Wait 15 years.

– Remove the bark and put it aside to dry. This is the first harvest of second-growth bark.

– Wait 2 years.

– When the bark is dry, cut it into parallel strips about as wide as the length of the cork (do you follow?)

– Ever since the arrival of the “bague-unicetie” bottle, the diameter of corks is 24mm. The usual lengths are 38mm, 45mm, 49mm, sometimes 54mm, etc.

– “tube” the corks out of the strip of bark

– According to taste, wash the corks with some kind of antiseptic substance, of a more or less dangerous nature, and of unproven efficiency (it’s totally useless, it just allows the manufacturer to add a clever line to his data sheet, for marketing purposes!)

– At this point the cork is called “natural” (never mind the dangerous substances…). Its surface is pitted with a certain number of small holes (or large cavities!) which define the quality category of the cork.

– If you want to give the cork a smooth appearance, especially when there are a lot of holes, you can shake it violently in a mixture of glue and cork dust, until the holes are plugged up. This is the filled cork.

– Natural or filled, you can dip it in paraffin or silicone. Paraffin is interesting because it lasts a long time (at least 20 years, beyond that you have to replace the cork anyhow…). On the other hand, for DYA wines (drink youngest available), corks with paraffin will be hard to remove, and that’s all it takes to be boycotted by lazy waiters who prefer to sell bottles that are more easily uncorked. Silicone coated corks are easier to remove.

– Join the “charter of cork manufacturers” if you want to sell your corks. For the winemaker this is no indication of quality, but at least it ensures that all suppliers are using the same language, especially in terms of dimensions and quality. Certain manufacturers still use terms like “lines” instead of millimeters (don’t ask how many mm in a line, I’ve forgotten and I don’t want to remember!). The same can be said about classification, where exotic terms like “Extra”, “Extra plus”, “First choice”, or “Reclassified first choice” have disappeared, luckily, to be replaced by the Charter classification from 0 to 7. Zero is the top grade (regarding a grade 7 cork, submarines can pass through the caverns! You have to see it to believe it!).

– Develop a sales pitch to market your cork. In essence, all along the sequence of events that I have described, quality and quantity are in constant opposition:
1- Second growth bark. Because the cork is “tubed” sideways, you can observe on the round side the bands that mark the age of the bark. You can see this better on corks that have not been used yet, but sometimes also on used ones, on the side that was not in contact with the wine, especially if it was not too deformed by the corking machine. In short, you can see that the 15-year rule is rarely respected. One would be very glad to find 12 tightly spaced bands (a sign of slow growth, without excessive use of fertilizers), but often one finds only 6 or 7 wide ones! Obviously it’s more profitable to harvest every 6 years instead of every 12 or 15. The problem is that wide bands affect the resilience of the cork, its capacity to regain its shape after being compressed (and how!) by the corking machine.
2- Drying. Did it really last 2 years? Were the barks stocked in closed hangars or were they left outside, exposed (yes, I assure you, it still happens!) to rain, heat, cold, etc.? Under such exposure there is a risk of the cork developing the horrible disease known as the yellow stain, responsible for “corky taste”. Investment can limit the damage, but the price of the cork rises as a result.
3- Filling. This practice allows one to gain a grade point. But the winemaker that buys these corks is irresponsible, because he no longer has control of his purchasing (go ahead, hit me! I will not recant… ha-ha), all the holes are plugged, the cork looks attractive, but what about real quality?

In conclusion, one must not equate length with quality. It is better to use a 0-grade 45×24 natural paraffin coated cork than a 5-grade 54×24 filled silicone coated cork. On the other hand, prices are quite variable; one can go from a given price to 5 times that without any difference visible to the naked eye. For instance, a 45×24 grade 0 cork costs about 23 cents, and a 38×24 grade 3 cork costs about 6 cents. These are average prices, and they depend on all the manufacturing factors mentioned above.