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Drink Wine and Save the Oak Forests of Southern Europe |
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Environment
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Written by Danny Penman
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 Supermarkets are helping to destroy one of the world’s most important wildlife habitats by forcing wine producers to switch to plastic corks, claim environmentalists.
The humble wine bottle cork, produced from the bark of oak trees in Spain and Portugal, helps support hundreds of rare plants and animals and provides winter homes to robins, chiff chaffs and warblers.
But the drive by supermarkets to replace cork with plastic bottle stoppers is threatening the viability of the forests. Wildlife experts are warning that the cork farmers could soon be forced to plough up the forests and replace them with conventional crops.
“If that happens,” warns a spokesman for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. “It would be a disaster for wildlife.”
“This environment is like a stack of cards. If you pull out one card then the whole lot comes tumbling down. If cork is replaced by plastic bottle stoppers, then this unique environment will be destroyed. It’s as simple as that.”
The cork forests, which cover nearly a tenth of Portugal and vast swathes of Spain, are a by-product of centuries of low-intensity agriculture. Cereal crops are grown in forest clearings whilst wild cattle and domesticated pigs, sheep and goats forage between the trees. But the main crop is cork bark, which can only be harvested every nine years. The cork oaks produce their first crop after 30 years and harvesting only becomes economic when the trees reach 48.
A list of the wildlife found in the cork groves, or Montados, reads like a catalogue of Europe’s rare and threatened species. The majority of the world’s remaining 130 pairs of Spanish Imperial Eagles live in the cork groves and the rare Iberian lynx still prowls the forests.
The cork forests also provide hunting grounds for booted eagles, buzzards and vultures and serve as vital over-wintering stops for birds migrating from Eastern Europe. Cranes are common and swallows use the forests to take a break from their 6,000 mile journey to South Africa. The Montados are also vital for British birds. Migrating robins, warblers and chiff chaffs all depend on the cork oaks for food and shelter.
Despite the claimed environmental benefits of traditional corks, retailers want to replace them with plastic stoppers to eliminate the risk of wine becoming “corked” on the supermarket shelf. They claim that cork can taint wine and, in extreme cases, make it undrinkable.
Liz Robertson, Master of Wine for Safeway, says: “Cork taint is a major problem. It may not be something that the customer could confidently pinpoint but we know the difference.
“It’s the difference between a clean, fresh zippy taste and a rather dreary, dirty, dull and slightly oxidised bottle of wine.”
Others in the wine trade disagree. Geoffrey Kelly, spokesman for the Portuguese wine industry says: “As far as the customer is concerned, cork taint is not a problem. Wine is a live food. It’s not Coca-Cola. Every bottle and every vintage is different.”
To try and prevent the Montados being destroyed, the RSPB is calling for supermarkets to label wines that use plastic corks. Retailers are fiercely resisting the move.
Liz Robertson of Safeway says: “It’s not enough to indicate what sort of closure is in the bottle because most people will not be aware of all the issues involved. We think that plastic stoppers are good for the environment because they relieve pressure on the cork groves and prevent over-harvesting.”
But this argument cuts little ice with conservationists. Alasdair Bright of the RSPB says: “We’re encouraging everybody to do everything they can to make sure that the wine they buy has a natural cork. If they do that then the cork groves will survive for future generations to enjoy.”
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