Wine aficionados rejoice! The return of the wine cork is at hand. 
American wineries’ use of cork has declined from 90% to 70% in recent years, and not just run-of-the-mill cheap table wine producers were switching from cork to aluminum or plastic. One of the reasons for the decline was a tainted cork scandal that was not initially addressed by the trade industry. Now with a $3 million grant from the government of Portugal, and improved quality control, the cork trade industry is seeking to lure back American wine producers. The cork industry is touting environmental statistics, as stated in a PricewaterhouseCoopers report, about the amount of greenhouse gas emissions synthetic stoppers contribute to the atmosphere compared to those from naturally harvested cork. And there efforts are paying off. One of the largest American wine producers, Rutherford Wine Company, a Northern California wine producer, has switched back to an all cork bottling operation. Other reasons exist to direct wineries towards tree cork as a wine bottle sealer, and not just because of tradition. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) documents the value of cork trees and threats to their existence. Portuguese cork cultivators are determined to avoid the fate of cork trees in Northern Africa, where poor land management, harvesting techniques, and shift towards cash crops have decimated cork tree forests. Personally, I’ve always liked cork over synthetic. Something about smelling the essence of the wine through the cork always appealed to me. It just seemed more organic.
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