I believe that all friends who have been in contact with wine should know cork, because cork is a sealing tool, which can usually be used to seal wine. A good quality cork can play a big role in wine, especially for expensive wines, it needs a good quality cork even more. So, why does wine use cork? Let's take you to learn more about it.
Before understanding why wine uses cork stoppers, let's first understand the production of cork stoppers:
Cork stoppers are made from the bark of the cork oak tree. The oak tree is not cut down when the bark is extracted, but up to half of the bark is removed at a time. Completing the job required great skill and specialized tools, as well as labor-intensive processing and some complex follow-up work. The tedious series of steps involved in stripping the delicate bark of a giant oak tree, cutting it into a balanced piece, and transporting it to the processing plant without damaging it explains exactly why Cork stoppers are more expensive than other bottle stoppers.
After understanding the production of cork stoppers, now let’s take a look at why wine uses cork stoppers:
1. The reason why wine uses cork stoppers is that cork stoppers are soft and highly elastic. They have many fine holes. The gap in the bottle neck is closed to prevent the wine from leaking; at the same time, the wine can also contact a small amount of air through the micropores of the cork itself to achieve the purpose of breathing and development, and continue to complete its maturation process after bottling.
2. Soaking the components of the cork into the wine will also increase the structure of the wine.
3. The cork of the bottle cap of the wine is elastic to ensure the sealing, suitable for the quiet place of the wine, and has a certain degree of air permeability, so that the wine can maintain a certain degree of breathing during the fermentation process in the bottle. When wine is bottled and stored, it needs to be placed flat. At this time, the wine will be soaked through the cork to effectively prevent the wine body from being polluted. Cork stoppers should not deteriorate, will not rust, and will not lose taste.
In summary, it is not difficult to see that the quality of the cork will affect the quality of the wine. A good quality cork is usually airtight, which allows less air to gradually enter the bottle. Generally speaking, the length of cork used for common wine is about 3.5 cm to 5 cm, while the length of cork used for good wine is more than 5 cm.
