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The cork supply is not elastic. It takes at least 20 years for a tree to mature so it can be harvested, so if the market demand is doubled tomorrow, it will tak

• hubb 14y ago
  The video linked in the article claims they can harvest a tree every 9 years.
  • scott_s 14y ago
    miahi's point was about new trees reaching the point that they could enter the 9 year harvesting cycle.
  • pan69 14y ago
    Yes. But like miahi is saying: "It takes at least 20 years for a tree to mature so it can be harvested" If cork demand doubles tomorrow it means you will have to plant new trees and it will take at least 20 years before those trees are mature enough to be harvested.
  • miahi 14y ago
    I was saying that if you want to start a cork supply business (grow cork trees because you see an increased demand), you'll have to wait for at least 25 years to make any cork at all, and probably 35 years to make any revenue. A tree reaches maturity after ~25 years after planting, and the first harvest is usually low quality, so it doesn't bring money. After the first harvest it can be harvested every 9-10 years, and you can do so for hundred of years (a healthy cork oak can live for 5-600 years). Cork does grow on trees, but slowly :).
• raverbashing 14y ago
  Or wine bottlers can switch to synthetic cork (a synthetic bottle stopper) leaving natural cork to where it's needed most.
  • bethling 14y ago
    Synthetic cork has been shown not to be as 'good' as the natural type for certain cases. For one reason or another it either lets too much Oxygen through causing the wine oxidize too fast, or not enough causing wines to age slowly. Wines that are meant to drink while young do great with a screw cap. Anything that I'd want to put in a cellar and age I'd want to have a natural cork.
    • greendestiny 14y ago
      I don't think its really been shown at all - this answer on Quora seems pretty balanced: http://www.quora.com/Wine/Do-wines-with-screw-caps-age-as-well-as-wine-with-corks http://www.quora.com/Wine/Do-wines-with-screw-caps-age-as-we... The effects of micro-oxidization are definitely not the only change in taste that happen to an aging wine.
      • bethling 14y ago
        It's a pretty major part though. The study that I remember reading was done in Australia with white wines that had been aged for 5 years with different closures(though in the same environment). The sensory results did indicate that the choice of closure did have a pretty significant impact in the way that the wine aged. Synthetics had more oxidized notes, Screw cap wines tended to be reduced and have varietal characteristics consistent with younger wines, while cork aged as expected. "Better" is a subjective term, and most people would actually prefer the fruitiness of a youthful wine. Heck, I know I do most of the time :) But there's something that develops with certain wines over time that I'm not just convinced that you can get with screw caps.
        • raverbashing 14y ago
          True Maybe it's even part of some wine/wood interaction Screw caps may be ok but they certainly look cheap. I'm not convinced low-end corks are better than synthetic cork (in the case of some aging), and maybe the technology improves, leaving the solid corks to the expensive wines. Supermarkets in France sell corks, I remember seeing them split by aging time, from 1,2 years up to around 20 years