Based in Seattle, Washington, there are rumors that Bill Gates is a large investor in the firm. Today, one tree remains, it has never been harvested. To stave off the devastating financial impact the synthetic cork could have on the Portuguese economy, Amorim has agreed to discontinue the use of the chemical TCA in cork production. In 1999, a process using microwave radiation on the natural cork was developed, eliminating the need for TCA to kill molds that could taint the wine. Wines being bottled in 2000 will carry this new cork treatment.
Wines can go bad for all kinds of reasons, most of which are betrayed by the way they smell.
If they develop acetic acid, they smell like vinegar. If they contain hydrogen sulfide, they smell like rotten eggs. The most common kind of wine spoilage, however, is beyond the control of a winemaker and is also one of the hardest flaws to identify. Mold is sometimes found in the bark of Quercus suber, the cork tree, which is raised commercially in Portugal, Spain, and North Africa. In any case, it wreaks havoc in wine when it encounters the chlorine chemicals that, ironically enough, have traditionally been used to sterilize corks.