Wines & Vines

CLOSURES arrive in the United States, G3 performs its own round of analysis to double check for sensory faults and for performance. Thompson said winery staff can run the analysis right on the bottling line. "It's user-friendly and really kind of self-intuitive," he said. "We really think we've taken Nomacorc unveils 'zero-carbon' Select Bio this to a next level." In the synthetic closure segment, Nomacorc claims to now close apNomacorc unveiled its new Select Bio proximately 44% of all wine consumed in closure at this year's Intervitis Interthe United States and about 13% of the fructa tradeshow in Germany. Malcolm estimated global production of 18.5 billion Thompson, the company's vice president bottles of wine per year. Produced with materials made from sugar of strategy and innovation, said the new Thompson said Nomacorc continues its cane, Nomacorc claims its "Select Bio" cloproduct is essentially a carbon neutral research into improving oxygen managesure is the first with a zero carbon footprint. extension of Nomacorc's existing ment at all stages of winemaking. While Select series. He said the firm has made the company has been focused on closures, sustainability a priority for some time. Thompson said it quickly become appar"It's embedded in our culture, you may say." ent that oxygen management is a crucial but little-understood Raw materials account for 80% of the carbon footprint of element of winemaking. "Even at bottling there still remains Nomacorc's closures, and most of the polymer materials Nomaa tremendous opportunity to optimize that process," he said. corc uses for its products are derived from petrochemical sources "There's a lot we can do to help our customers and the industry to create food-safe polyethylene packaging material. That meant with that." the company's engineers had to seek out a natural source, and Thompson said he couldn't be too specific, but he hinted that search led them to Brazil, which is the world's secondthe company would soon unveil better analysis technology to largest producer of sugar cane-derived ethanol. Thompson said improve headspace oxygen management during bottling. "We're the process of deriving ethanol from sugar cane could be modigenerally an innovation-driven company, and we're growing and fied to produce the materials needed to form its closures. continue to grow, and we've got a lot of things in the pipeline." The Bio closure will be manufactured in Europe, where As simple as sealing a bottle of wine may appear, the millions Nomacorc's production facilities are all powered with renewable of dollars and research hours spent to improve and standardize sources. The company will be testing the Bio with certain clients the closure segment show that the only really simple thing about through 2013 with the idea to launch it by bottling season bottle closures is removing them. in 2014. "The reception in the market has been amazing," Thompson said. He added the Bio would be produced in the United States soon. The Bio is priced higher than the rest of Nomacorc's Select Your success is our prioritY series. The closure is also slightly larger, although Thompson said it should just be a simple "drop in" on bottling lines. Nomacorc's existing line of Select 100, 300, 500 and 700 series closures offer winemakers varying levels of oxygen transfer rates. The Bio will be available in the 100, 300 and 500 series— although not the 700 because Thompson said most wineries looking to use the Bio likely will have made "sulfite minimal" wines. Like the rest of Nomacorc's line, the Bio is completely recyclable. The company is also currently rolling out its updated Nomasense oxygen analyzer, which can calculate total package oxygen, or TPO. Instead of measuring DO and headspace oxygen, then TapiUSA_Dir09.qxp 11/5/08 1:28 PM Page 1 running over to a computer to input the amounts to find TPO, Win es & Vin e s AU GU ST 20 13 59

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