We're writing about it as a symbol of something larger, something we'll get to in a little while. Cork, of course, comes from the bark of trees, and it has been used to plug wine bottles for centuries. We hear this kind of spoilage is a major problem, and the reason why more and more wineries are turning to other kind of stoppers. Brooke Hilton, director of marketing for SupremeCorq, the Seattle area-based industry leader in synthetic corks, says more than 400 wineries all over the world use the company's synthetic corks to seal millions of cases of wine . But we're never going to replace corks.
Wineries use both.
The truth is that most wine that is purchased in the U.S. is consumed almost immediately. So whether that wine has a good, old-fashioned cork meant to last for decades or a simple, sometimes inexpensive plastic cork makes no real difference. Still, we'd have to agree with many of our readers that there is something a little odd about plastic corks. It's an emotional thing. No, this doesn't make any sense, and no, it wouldn't deter us from buying a bottle that's sealed that way.