#1 A Funeral for Cork

Part of what sets wine apart from other drinks is the ritual surrounding it. It approaches a ceremony when you pop open a bottle. Especially when there's cork involved. A cork closure is unique to wine (for the most part) and it requires a special tool to open it, elevating the whole process that much more.

But Randall Grahm thinks cork is ruining wine. Grahm, the owner of Bonny Doon Vineyard in California, has made it his life's work to kill the cork. Grahm bottles all of his vineyard's wine in screw caps, and in the early 2000s, he staged an event that would leave its imprint on the wine industry for years to come: a funeral for cork.

In this episode, we explore why Grahm is so vehemently opposed to cork--and why his innovative ideas about cork might be behind the times.