It seems that in the 17C a french Monk, they did love their wine, called Perpignan fell upon the idea of using the bark as a sealant for bottled wines.Its more less,efficient preservative qualities over long period of time, gave the like of Chateaux Margaux, and lafite the opportunity to preserve their wines and even bottles that had been rescued from shipwrecks after years submerged were still found to be drinkable. All this due to the efficiency of corks as a sealant and giving the chateux the chance to sell wines that had matured after many, many years for astronomical sums. This gnarled tree bark becomes the humble keeper of such great wines as those and even the ones we all can drink.
