Marion Edmunds
Pragmatism has defeated romance at Villiera Wine Estate just outside Stellenbosch, where wine-maker Jeff Grier has swapped natural corks for synthetic stoppers to seal his cheaper bottles of wine.
While some wine aficionados have decried the move as a tragedy for South African wine drinkers, others are praising Grier for bravery. They are watching carefully how the market will react to the synthetic stoppers, known as corqs, which are already widely used overseas.
By introducing the synthetic corqs – which are biodegradable, recyclable and made of a substance safe enough to use as artificial heart valves – Grier hopes to avoid the problems created by poor-quality natural corks, which ruin up to 5% of the country’s wines.
“Natural or bark cork has all the disadvantages of a living thing, like flaws, holes, damaged cells affecting elasticity and the fact that it shrinks over time,” he says. “Natural corks cost the industry a fortune every year in replacing corked bottles and conducting research and tests in an attempt to eliminate the problem. But success is not being achieved and, to make matters worse, the availability of quality cork is under pressure.”
Initially Grier will use the corqs on wines which should be drunk within the next two years, but he also wants to experiment with better-quality wines to see how the “corqed” wine matures over periods up to 10 years. If the synthetic corqs are a success, Grier is thinking of producing them himself.
Grier’s neighbour, James Browne, of Hartenberg Wine Estates, says the synthetic corqs are an important innovation. “There have been a number of important court cases by wine estates against cork producers because of poor-quality corks. There is great demand for synthetic corks in England, for example, precisely because of this problem.”
Tweejongezellen’s wine-maker, Nicky Krone, is in two minds about the corq: “Even if I am one of the last of the romantics, perhaps one should be sensible about this. One will eventually come to associate corqs with the cheaper range.”
Grier’s synthetic corqs come from the United States and cost 70c each. Natural corks, imported from Portugal and Spain, cost between 45c and R1,10, depending on the length.
Acclaimed cellar master Achim von Arnim of Haute Cabriere in Franschoek says he does not use synthetic corks and is prepared to pay more for good-quality natural cork. “The cork is part of the maturing process; it discreetly gives air to the wine and allows the wine to mature. But if you are bottling wine to drink next year, I suppose you might as well use crown corks – the sort of corks you use on beer bottles,” he says.