Forget the cork, how about some wine?

Let me explaing my choice of the topic of the newsletter first. The purpose of this article is to shortly and meaningfully tell readers about the cork. This is my second year in London and so far I had to deal with numerous people and companies.

Every time was different, but I have managed to note one distinct trend, which led me to todays topic - the utter lack of intellect shown by astonishing number of customer services workers. I have also noticed the opposite - the assumption of lack of customers intellect by the workers of different companies.

To put it simple - some of them lack intellegence and some of them assume we lack intellegence. I do not aim to badmouth general customer service in London - for those from UK, just think about British Telecom, Airways, Royal Mail, Carphone Warehouse or Tiscali Broadband. They are a complete trash, worst thing than can happen to you here(thankfully). I would like to discuss the related topic.

There is a word in Russian language which is used to describe the case I am talking about - lack of intelligence: пробка - this is on Russian, sounds like probka. It literally means cork, so it might be derived from the use of cork - to close the top of champaign or wine bottle. Sometimes speaker can informally reproduce the sound of cork popping out of the bottle to emphasise the meaning.

So when you say cork you do not mean that the person is stupid, you rather saying that he is a slow thinker, who is not providing enough understanding offer. As I did my research about cork, I found out that the corck is a valuable material which is highly demanded and lacks supply - just like oil. Cork is essentially a tree bark of an evergreen cork oak Quercus sube. Oak is another word used to index on the stupidity of the person in Russian language. Corck is produced mainly in Portugal but as well in Spain, Algeria, Morocco, France, Italy and Tunisia. According to www.realcork.org the annual production of corck in 2006 has exceeded 340,000 tons.

Half of this cork was produced in Portugal. However the supply is limited by the speed of the corck growth. It takes the minimum of 31 years to receive the first usable yield of corck. What makes corck so desirable and usable? Well, here is an incomplete, but already impressive list: It is: 1. very light 2. impermeable to liquids and gases 3. elastic and compressible 4. an excellent thermal and acoustic insulator 5. incombustible 6. 7. a natural antistatic.

Cork is widely used among the industries, beginning from wine and ending by home interier. While I would not focus on the interier (http://pro-remont.com/design/probka.html it is on russian) I will shortly tell you about the usage of cork for wine stoppers. The reason why producers use cork to close the wine or champaign bottles is because it can restore the original form quickly and it is waterproof.

So it is very easy to put it inside the bottle - on the factory it is being squeezed and then pushed inside the bottle. In the bottle it restores original form. Cork stoppers are the most popular between the stoppers for wine and champagne. Of course there is such factor as CO2 emissions increase caused by cutting down the trees, but the conservative market refuses to change to plastic or alternative types of stoppers.

US and British customers being main buyers for wine and champaign still prefer wooden cork to other types. Main reason is that the wooden cork feels more natural and appealing and adds up to the whole wine drinking experience. To sum up, cork is a useful and popular material, enjoying hign demand and low in supply. Customers prefer cork for its appeal, industry values its qualities.

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