The Joy of Wine Bottle Corks 🍾

+ what you need to know about protecting your fine wine

I started saving all my wine bottle corks in big glass bottles some years ago. I love to look at them as each one recalls a pleasant memory of a bottle of wine shared with friends and family. No two are alike and they are all stamped with the name of the winery they came from.

I'm always vaguely disheartened when I open a bottle of wine and find a synthetic (plastic) bottle stopper, these days referred to as closures. It seems to be in contradiction with how I view wine: a natural, earthy pleasure of life. 

Some years back a weekly Italian magazine I read was featuring full page ads in favor of using cork bottle closures. The ads point out the centuries old relationship between wine and cork and that cork protects flavor, nature and tradition. 

I spent a few days on the magical island of Corsica and while there we drove by a number of cork groves which, if my husband hadn't known what they were and pointed them out, I wouldn’t have had any idea they were cork trees.