New App Allows Consumers to Identify Wines with Natural Cork Closures

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Finding out what's under the foil just got a lot easier.  Now when cork lovers shop their favorite wine aisle they can employ the new CorkWatch App on their smart phones or tablets to ensure the wine they purchase is sealed with the real deal.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110315/MM65231)

The app, developed by the Cork Quality Council and ReCork, allows users to search a database of more than 1,700 wines that identifies which ones are sealed with natural cork.  Users can also enter the names of new wines into a database and indicate the type of closure by brand and varietal.

The app can be found at http://recork.org/corkwatch. CorkWatch can be accessed at http://100percentcork.org/cork-watch/.  

Attendees at the Unified Wine and Grape Symposium on Jan. 25-26 in Sacramento as well as the Zinfandel Advocates and Producers (ZAP Festival) on Jan. 29 in San Francisco can visit the Cork Quality Council booth to experience the app first hand. Visitors who give the app a whirl can even enter a contest to win one of four Apple iPads or an Amex gift card.

Natural cork is one of the world's most sustainable products. Biodegradable and recyclable, its use provides an economic incentive to preserve vast cork oak forests in the Mediterranean Basin that trap greenhouse gases, prevent desertification and provide habitat for hundreds of plant and animal species.

There is no shortage of cork, and cork oaks are not cut down to make cork.  A portion of their bark is removed every nine years during a 250-year lifespan.

About Cork Quality Council
Based in Napa, Calif., the CQC is a non-for-profit organization founded to promote education and improved quality assurance procedures for the wine and cork industries.  The CQC and the Portuguese Cork Association are funding a national campaign called 100% Cork to educate wine consumers about the environmental, technical and social advantages of natural cork.  More information can be found at http://www.corkqc.com.

About ReCORK
ReCORK is a natural wine cork recycling program. ReCORK's goal is to recycle natural corks and be a point of interaction about the crucial role of cork forests. ReCORK is committed to sustainable solutions, partnering with like-minded companies and developing innovative consumer products that use natural cork to replace petroleum based materials. The ReCORK program is sponsored by SOLE, a leading manufacturer of footwear products based in Vancouver, British Columbia.  More information can be found at http://recork.org.

About 100% Cork
100% Cork is a campaign to educate U.S. wine consumers about the benefits of choosing wine with real cork stoppers because of cork's environmental, technical and societal advantages.  The campaign seeks to recruit and organize wine consumers to request that winemakers and retailers choose natural cork over artificial stoppers.  The campaign is funded by the Portuguese Cork Association and the Cork Quality Council. More information can be found at www.100percentcork.org.

SOURCE 100% Cork