Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/347498
30 W i n e s & V i n e s A U G U s T 2 0 1 4 USA also produces "colmated corks, Silktop technical corks and Pearl micro-agglomer- ated corks," according to Wolfe. Colmated corks consist of a solid natural cork body and a fine granular cork coating. "Technical cork products, due to their greater density and slightly tighter fit within the bottle, could result in slightly lower levels of OTR," she said. M.A. Silva's Silktop technical corks are designed primarily for mid-range wines that may benefit from short-term aging (three to four years), Wolfe explained. "Pearl micro-agglomerated corks are designed primarily for price-sensitive still wines and light sparkling wines." Amorim planned to introduce two new products this summer. Neutrocork Premium is a unit-molded micro-agglom- erated cork "guaranteed to 1 part per tril- lion or less of TCA," Rose said. Amorim's Twin-Top EVO is a unit-molded micro- agglomerated body with natural disks on each end. Diam Bouchage, a French company with a production facility in Spain, has conducted extensive research into the oxygen-permeability rates of its agglomer- ate closures. The company produces more than 1 billion corks annually; in North America they are distributed by G3 in Modesto, Calif. To assess OTRs, Diam's research team developed the permeameter. The machine consists of several round chambers of cyl- inders (similar to bottlenecks) that contain closures. These chambers connect two oth- ers—one filled with oxygen, and the other a vacuum that draws oxygen through the closure, measuring actual OTR. Diam uses permeameter data for quality control, and for comparison with compet- ing corks. Diam corks are available with varying OTR ranges: Diam 10 and 30, designed for wines made for long bottle aging, have the lowest rates, between 0.05 and 0.1 parts per million (ppm). Other Diam closures provide OTRs between 0.15 and 0.35 ppm. The com- pany tests about 350 closures daily for quality control. Francois Margot, Diam's North American export manager, stressed that the exact amount of oxygen that enters wine depends on how the bottles are stored after packaging and during transportation. Diam is now performing trials with universities in Italy, Spain and France to better understand how wines age under different closures. Margot said the goal is to pinpoint which rate of permeability works best for each varietal. The chal- lenge, he said, is that no two wines are alike, and the same wine can react differ- ently under different closures. Synthetic Synthetic stoppers have become main- stream in the past decade. During that time, Zebulon, N.C.-based Nomacorc has www.jansoncapsules.com EntEr thE 30 x 60 DimEnsion C L O S U R E S 3 Months 6 Months 1 Year After 1st Year n Select 700 n Select 500 n Select 300 n Select 100 mg of O 2 3.5 3.0 2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0 OxyGEn TRanSmiSSiOn RaTES nOMACORC Nomacorc Select Series offers four OTRs.