Monday, July 24, 2006

Put A Cork In It

Here is this year's stash of corks from wines we have known and loved -- or choked down. Whatever.

Whole Lotta Corks...

We save the corks and annually, I make them into wreaths or trivets or line trays with them. Sadly, real corks are going the way of the dinosaur. Many stoppers you will find these days in decent bottles of wine are fricken plastic. They say it doesn't change the flavor of the wine but I detest plastic corks. One cannot make pretty cork wreaths with plastic crap.

This Year's Cork Collection

Worldwide cork demand has increased due to a larger proportion of wine being sealed with cork rather than being sold in bulk. Since an oak tree's bark can only be harvested once a decade or so, the supply is limited. Top quality corks are quite expensive, so many vinyards have switched to lower quality cork, synthetic plastic stoppers, or even screw caps.

We love wine. We buy a lot of three liters glass jugs with screw caps or we would have a few bushels more of corks per year. Still, we end up with a fair amount for we believe that dinner must always be enjoyed with a complimentary wine.

Yes, we are total wine sots. Some people buy a new car every year or two. We drink wine. Others eat out 2 or 3 times a week. We drink wine. I gave up Manolo's for Martini's but that is another story in itself.

And, as a point of interest, I have been to Cork, Ireland, and mostly everyone drank beer, ale or Irish whisky and there weren't any cork trees that I noticed. When I have time, I'll show you some cork wreaths.
Until then, Salute! Facciamoci un bicchiere!

No, I am not Italian but W4D is. The Flaurella is Irish, German and English and very fiesty.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thought that real cork was harvested only in Portugal?

Flaurella said...

Yep, I think Portugal has been the prime supplier of oak cork but I think it can be grown elsewhere, too. Here's an interesting article I found:
http://www.fao.org/docrep/x1880e/x1880e08.htm

I just don't like the fake cork and you can tell the quality of different genuine corks when you save a lot of it.

Julian said...

Hi Flaurella, here's some cork-related stuff from Cork, Ireland: http://bubblebrothers.blogspot.com/2006/07/cork-screwed.html

Flaurella said...

Julian,

A genuine Bubble Brother?
A man after my own heart!

How was Norway?

Slainte,
O'Flaurel

Julian said...

Hi Flaurella,
I'm not quite the genuine article - the other original Bubble Brother scarpered (ho ho) to Norway, I think - last heard of representing Ireland in cross-country skiing at the Winter Olympics.

Norway was great, thanks. Met some old buddies, the Jive Aces, and heard some great music. Travelling home exquisitely painful and prolonged thanks to World Situation &c.

Julian said...

Hi Flaurella,
I'm not quite the genuine article - the other original Bubble Brother scarpered (ho ho) to Norway, I think - last heard of representing Ireland in cross-country skiing at the Winter Olympics.

Norway was great, thanks. Met some old buddies, the Jive Aces, and heard some great music. Travelling home exquisitely painful and prolonged thanks to World Situation &c.

Flaurella said...

A Bubble Brother is a Bubble Brother is a Bubble Brother. All Bubble Brothers are well, brothers!

Glad you had a dandy trip.

Myron said...

Thanks so much for this post, really helpful material.
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