The Portuguese Cork Association Brings "Drink Responsibly. Choose a Bottle with a Natural Cork" Campaign to New York City with Experiential Pedicab Program

The Initiative Offers Free Pedicab Rides for Wine Trade and Consumers to Promote Mindful Consumption Across the City's Top Wine Events, Starting with Wine on Wheels

NEW YORK, Oct. 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Portuguese Cork Association (APCOR) expands its U.S. educational campaign, "Drink Responsibly. Choose a Bottle with a Natural Cork" by providing New York's top wine events with complimentary cork-branded pedicab rides. A new activation, the experiential promotion encourages consumers to associate mindful consumption with natural cork, elevating their wine and spirits choices through sustainability, quality, and a culture of drinking better.

Redefining a phrase long associated with alcohol consumption, this campaign broadens the definition of responsibility to encompass quality, sustainability, and thoughtful closure selection. Because natural cork is renewable, recyclable, and essential to a zero-waste approach, it represents a truly responsible packaging choice for producers, retailers, and consumers alike.

The "Drink Responsibly. Choose a Bottle with a Natural Cork" experiential pedicab campaign officially launches in New York City on Sunday, October 18 at City Winery's Pier 57 location during the Wine on Wheels Grand Tasting. Founded by renowned sommelier and disability advocate Yannick Benjamin, the event brings together over 75 top sommeliers, 150 world-class wines, and offerings from 40 leading NYC restaurants. Throughout the event, attendees can take complimentary rides on APCOR pedicabs, prominently featuring the campaign slogan, to reach local transit hubs, including the 14th Street and 8th Avenue MTA subway station.

The pedicab tour will continue at Vinitaly.USA, the country's leading wine tasting event dedicated to Italian wines, on Monday, October 26 and Tuesday, October 27 at Pier 36 in New York City. The Italian wine trade event's New York City debut will see over 300 exhibitors and an anticipated 1,000+ trade professionals engaging with the "Drink Responsibly. Choose a Bottle with a Natural Cork" experiential pedicab campaign fleet on site to provide complimentary transit throughout the two-day event.

Further supporting the campaign's message of choosing products that support quality, sustainability, and the culture of drinking better, APCOR has partnered with the hospitality-driven Cork Collective, to host an onsite recycling program at wine events featuring the "Drink Responsibly. Choose a Bottle with a Natural Cork" pedicabs to reinforce the sustainability and circularity of natural cork. This year, Cork Collective made national headlines for repurposing natural corks collected from top New York City restaurants and turning them into social good community projects, including a 7,200-square-foot recycled cork pathway at Brooklyn's Marlboro Houses.

Following each October event, APCOR's pedicabs will pop up around New York City at select Cork Collective partner restaurants, offering complimentary transit rides to local subway stations for patrons who choose to purchase wines sealed with natural cork from select wine lists.

To learn more about the campaign and its active partnerships with upcycling natural cork artists like Kanye Tomiwa check out more information at @100percentcork on Instagram and Facebook.

About APCOR
Associação Portuguesa da Cortiça (APCOR) exists to represent and promote the Portuguese cork industry and its products. APCOR is the employers' association of national scope, created in 1956 and is based in Santa Maria de Lamas, at the heart of the cork industry around 30 kilometers from Porto, Portugal's second largest city. Membership of the association is open to all companies operating in the fields of production, marketing or export of cork products. The organization advocates on behalf of the Portuguese cork industry worldwide and is the driving force of an industry based on tradition, innovation and sustainability.

About Wine on Wheels
Wine on Wheels aids persons with disabilities living in New York City and its surrounding areas who are in need of assistance with the challenges posed by being disabled by providing such individuals with resourceful information, financial assistance, promoting independence, and empowerment, helping obtain education and employment and other such supportive services.

About Cork Collective
Cork Collective is an initiative fueled by the expertise and passion of its founding partners—Rockwell Group, Amorim, BlueWell & Southern Glazer's Wine & Spirits—and is dedicated to transforming cork waste into valuable resources, showcasing its versatility and circularity. Through partnerships with restaurants and hospitality venues, the Cork Collective collects and recycles wine corks, turning them into eco-friendly projects.

Media Contact
Leah Isenberg
Colangelo & Partners
[email protected]

SOURCE The Portuguese Cork Association (APCOR)