The Portuguese Cork Association (APCOR) is taking the phrase "drink responsibly" in an unexpected direction. The industry group launched a U.S. campaign — titled "Drink Responsibly. Choose a Bottle with a Natural Cork." — that repositions the familiar alcohol-awareness slogan to encompass packaging sustainability, product quality, and environmental stewardship alongside traditional messages of moderation.
The Campaign Mechanics
The initiative will roll out across digital and out-of-home advertising, social media channels, and strategic event partnerships throughout the United States. The strategy targets both trade professionals and general consumers, making it relevant for wine and spirits producers, importers, retailers, and on-premise operators who influence closure decisions and communicate quality cues to guests. For restaurants and bars, where the ritual of opening a bottle carries genuine theater, the campaign reinforces natural cork as a tangible marker of premium positioning.
"For generations, cork has been the gold standard for quality and sustainability in wine and spirits," said Paulo Américo Oliveira, President of the Board of APCOR. "We are empowering consumers to see that true responsibility extends to the bottle itself, making natural cork part of the responsible drinking concept."
The Sustainability Case
The environmental argument underpins much of the campaign's messaging. Cork oak forests — known as the Montado — sequester up to 14.7 tons of CO₂ per hectare annually, support more than 350 plant and animal species, and provide critical habitat for endangered wildlife. Cork is harvested without felling trees, making it a renewable and recyclable material that APCOR frames as a zero-waste packaging solution.
For beverage producers and hospitality operators navigating sustainability commitments, that environmental profile has growing relevance. As on-premise venues face pressure from guests and investors to demonstrate greener practices, the closure on a wine bottle — easy to overlook — becomes another touchpoint in a broader story about sourcing and stewardship.
What It Means for Operators
The campaign arrives as the beverage industry continues debating closure formats, with screw caps and alternative closures gaining share in certain wine categories. By aligning natural cork with responsible drinking culture — language already embedded in hospitality staff training and front-of-house messaging — APCOR is angling to keep cork top of mind during purchasing decisions at the distributor, retail, and restaurant levels.
Beyond sustainability, APCOR emphasizes the sensory dimension: the sound, the gesture, and the anticipation of a cork extraction remain powerful signals of occasion and quality in fine-dining and premium casual settings. That experiential argument may carry particular weight as operators work to justify premium pours and elevate the on-premise drinking experience in a competitive market. Food & Beverage Magazine has tracked similar efforts by producers to reconnect consumers with the craft elements of wine and spirits service.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
