After storing that bottle long past the life of the Yamaha and giving it time to mature in our wine cellar, the perfect occasion to open it has finally arrived. To celebrate a round birthday, I prepare a majestic meal to match Angelo Gaja's Barbaresco. Georg tenderly carries the bottle from the cellar. We reminisce our adventure in Piedmont by motorbike as Georg cautiously removes the extremely long, firm, top-quality cork that Gaja insists on for his wines. Suddenly Georg cries out, "Aaaaaargh! Yuk! No, this can't be!" Alarmed, I move closer and sure enough, I too, take in the unmistakable odor of damp, moldy cardboard even before the wine has been poured. Totally unwilling to accept the fact that the wine is cork-tainted, we decant. We taste. We decide perhaps the moldy taste will disappear. We wait. After half an hour we try the wine again and note no improvement whatsoever. After 45 minutes we realize that the stench has actually intensified and now reeks of smelly socks! With this utterly disappointing experience, we learn once again that even the world's best wines with the best cork stoppers available can be cork-tainted.

Corked wines are not just frustrating for consumers. Wine merchants are often expected to replace tainted bottles and they in turn look for reimbursement from wine producers. Spain's prestigious Bodegas Vega Sicilia recalled their 1994 Valbuena 5 Reserva because of corkiness in 1999 quoting damages of 3 million dollars. The elite Piedmont winery Elio Altare is presently suing his cork supplier because of cork contamination of his 1997 wines. Trichloranisole (TCA) is the nasty felon responsible for cork-taint that perplexes researchers worldwide who are still looking for the exact source of contamination. It has been commonly thought that the presence of TCA is created by a combination of natural mold in the cork oak and the chlorine in the solution used to clean the bark. Although the occurrence of cork-taint is definitely reduced when manufacturers replace the chlorine bath with other sterilization methods, it is still yet to be completely eradicated. Some scientists now believe that TCA is already present in the cork bark and that the usual methods of handling the wood are not sufficient to remove it. Cork manufacturers are working on new ways of treating cork with microwaves or ozone to prevent taint.

Meanwhile the competition does not sleep and other industrial sectors are coming up with alternatives to traditional cork stoppers and actively campaigning for consumer acceptance. The crown cap is an inexpensive alternative that has been around for decades. Gallo and many other wineries worldwide use crown caps to archive quality wines in order to ensure consistency of quality for many years. The twist-off cap or Stelvin has the advantage of being removable and replaceable without help of a tool. Although both the crown cap and twist-off cap are air tight and allow wine bottles to be stored in any position (even upright), consumers still associate them with soft drinks and other cheap artificial beverages. The new airtight SureOvin closure has the aesthetic advantage of allowing the bottle to look much like a traditional corkstopped one and can also be removed without tool assistance, but the closure can not be replaced on the bottle. Synthetic corks seem to enjoy the most acceptance from consumers, yet their inertness is controversial. Some connoisseurs claim to detect aromas resembling Vaseline or wet paint from wines with synthetic stoppers. The Australian Wine Research Institute even ran a study that showed that plastic corks can suck the flavors from a wine. In addition to this, the synthetic stoppers are not nearly as elastic as natural cork and are often extremely difficult to remove and nearly impossible to get back in the bottle neck.

Although all of these alternative stoppers have their advantages and will continue to be improved upon, not one will ever be as environmentally friendly as the traditional cork stopper. Not only is natural cork biodegradable, cork forestry itself preserves and enhances the environment. Portugal's cork woodlands provide a habitat for over 42 bird species, including endangered ones like the imperial and Bonetti eagles, the black stork and the black kite. It is no wonder that environmental protection agencies and Portugal's green party are joining efforts to help protect the centuries old cork industry.

The tremendous growth in quality wine production has brought an increased demand for traditional cork stoppers. Cork producers have compensated by planting more cork oaks, but a tree must first reach its 25th year before its dead bark can be stripped for cork production. Afterwards bark can only be harvested every 9 to 12 years for around 170 years --- the average life span of a cork oak. Obviously available bark could not suddenly appear overnight to meet the increased demand. Normally only the top quality bark, which makes up about 15% of the harvest, is used for wine stopper production and results in as much as 2/3 of manufacturers' income. The cork industry resorted to filling the demands of desperate wine producers by manufacturing aglomerate corks and corks from poor quality bark. Increased occurance of cork taint is the boomerang that has come back to haunt.

Optimists point out how alternative wine bottle closures will eventually improve cork quality and reduce the occurrence of TCA. The threatened cork industry is in a real hurry to find a way of eradicating cork taint and is investing a lot of money in that direction. Many wine producers are now using various alternative stoppers for their middle class wines and wines made for drinking young. This should make better quality cork more readily available for top quality wines destined for bottle aging.

One thing is certain: wine lovers tend to be of a romantic, traditional ilk and have an emotional attachment to the aesthetics of natural cork stoppers and the ritual of removing them from the neck of a good bottle of wine. Despite the risk of cork-taint, I myself would be very sad indeed to find a bottle of Gaja or any other great wine with anything other than a natural cork stopper.