The cork shortage happened because the cork oaks got a parasite that weakened them. The harvested corks were of inferior quality and the trees died from the parasite. Thus, a solution had to be thought of quickly or a whole years' wine harvest would have been pointless.

The solution they thought of (rubbery plastic 'corks') was so cheap, successful and didn't harm any more trees, that the majority of the wine industry has adopted it. It makes no difference to the wine, it gives hardly any chance of a wine being 'corked' and it doesn't disintegrate in the neck of the bottle, necessitating the rapid hunting down and scrubbing of the tea strainer, in order to appreciate a glass of something soft and fruity.

Bottle corks may be extinct in 10 years, but hopefully the cork oak won't be.

LTS