Or wine bottlers can switch to synthetic cork (a synthetic bottle stopper) leaving natural cork to where it's needed most.

Synthetic cork has been shown not to be as 'good' as the natural type for certain cases. For one reason or another it either lets too much Oxygen through causing the wine oxidize too fast, or not enough causing wines to age slowly.

Wines that are meant to drink while young do great with a screw cap. Anything that I'd want to put in a cellar and age I'd want to have a natural cork.

I don't think its really been shown at all - this answer on Quora seems pretty balanced: http://www.quora.com/Wine/Do-wines-with-screw-caps-age-as-we...

The effects of micro-oxidization are definitely not the only change in taste that happen to an aging wine.

It's a pretty major part though. The study that I remember reading was done in Australia with white wines that had been aged for 5 years with different closures(though in the same environment). The sensory results did indicate that the choice of closure did have a pretty significant impact in the way that the wine aged. Synthetics had more oxidized notes, Screw cap wines tended to be reduced and have varietal characteristics consistent with younger wines, while cork aged as expected.

"Better" is a subjective term, and most people would actually prefer the fruitiness of a youthful wine. Heck, I know I do most of the time :) But there's something that develops with certain wines over time that I'm not just convinced that you can get with screw caps.

True

Maybe it's even part of some wine/wood interaction

Screw caps may be ok but they certainly look cheap.

I'm not convinced low-end corks are better than synthetic cork (in the case of some aging), and maybe the technology improves, leaving the solid corks to the expensive wines.

Supermarkets in France sell corks, I remember seeing them split by aging time, from 1,2 years up to around 20 years

Or screw tops. A few years back a bunch of major winemakers in Australia said "screw it, we're not using corks anymore!" (pun intended)

People told them they were crazy, that the market thought screw tops were for cheap junk wine only, but they did it. And it worked. Now only bottles going to export markets use corks.

You lose the ritual of uncorking a bottle, but it's a lot more practical to open and there is no danger of the wine being corked.

This isn't strictly true. You can get "corked" wines under screw-cap or synthetic closures but it is a lot rarer. TCA can find its way just about anywhere.

The video linked in the article claims they can harvest a tree every 9 years.

I was saying that if you want to start a cork supply business (grow cork trees because you see an increased demand), you'll have to wait for at least 25 years to make any cork at all, and probably 35 years to make any revenue.

A tree reaches maturity after ~25 years after planting, and the first harvest is usually low quality, so it doesn't bring money. After the first harvest it can be harvested every 9-10 years, and you can do so for hundred of years (a healthy cork oak can live for 5-600 years).

Cork does grow on trees, but slowly :).

Yes. But like miahi is saying:

"It takes at least 20 years for a tree to mature so it can be harvested"

If cork demand doubles tomorrow it means you will have to plant new trees and it will take at least 20 years before those trees are mature enough to be harvested.

miahi's point was about new trees reaching the point that they could enter the 9 year harvesting cycle.