Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/347498
36 W i n e s & V i n e s A U G U s T 2 0 1 4 I t's one of those rare things in the wine business that's regarded by ev- eryone from winemakers and som- meliers to consumers with the same mix of disappointment, annoyance and even embarrassment: the eagerly anticipated bottle that ends up corked. "Obviously you know every time you open a bottle and you get that corked, musty smell, and your wine is ruined. It's just totally disappointing," says wine- maker David Brown. "And it always seemed to happen to me when I was try- ing to show off our wine." Brown, who is part-owner of Brown Estate winery and vineyards in the Chiles Valley area of Napa Valley, said he was growing ever more frustrated with faulty corks. He said corked bottles were some- thing he kept note of but didn't record each and every time he, a tasting room staff member or customer reported com- ing across a bottle that was corked. How- ever events like the Zinfandel Advocates & Producers' annual tasting, where he'd open 10 to 14 cases of wine, gave him a good insight into the scope of the issue, and after noticing an uptick in the rate of a corked bottles at a recent tasting he de- cided he had to do something—especially since he was buying corks purported to be of the best quality. A barrel representative mentioned the DS100 program by Cork Supply, and Brown decided to give it a try. Cork Supply's program involves putting each cork that's part of an order through the non-destructive "dry soak" method of sensory analysis. Brown thought it probably wasn't going to be 100% effective, but he figured it was better than doing nothing. A premium service, but less cork anxiety Brown said the incidence of corked bottles is way down, and taint wasn't an issue at all at the 2014 ZAP tast- ing. He said the dry soak service costs more, and it does add extra time to bottling because analysis time needs to be added to the schedule, but he feels it's worth it to preserve wine quality. After all the investment in the vineyard, cellar and packaging, it just doesn't make sense to put everything at risk by using a tainted cork. "We pay good money for each cork to be analyzed by hand," Brown said. In the August 2013 issue of Wines & Vines, the story "Advances in Closure Quality" reported on Cork Supply and Portocork's separate efforts to develop automated processes and machines to an- alyze corks for TCA and other contami- nants. The goal at the time was to provide the same accuracy and certainty of indi- vidual, non-destructive sensory analysis— but at high speeds. Last year the hope was to have some- thing ready by now, but it appears the industry will have to wait another year. "We're still cranking away at putting that technology together," said Peter Hladun, director of technical services at Cork Sup- ply USA, who added the goal is to have a system in place in Portugal by next year. In the meantime, the com- pany has ramped up its DS100 program, and Hladun said they've tested 2 million corks so far in 2014. That's a 150% increase over last year. He said Cork Supply continues to pur- chase hardware and hire sen- sory technicians to increase the capacity of its DS100 program, which can currently process 10,000 corks a day. The service costs 30 cents per cork, and Hladun said 75 wineries are using it. Most of these clients are high- end producers bottling wines with a retail price of more than $100 per bottle. Many are based in the Napa Valley, but a few clients are in Oregon and Washington state. Hladun said several wineries only use the DS100 service on corks destined for their very best wines, or they just use it for large-format corks. Keeping Corks Free of Contaminants Supplier techs sniff individual corks for high-value wines as work on automated TCA-screening systems continues By Andrew Adams Highlights • Fed up with corked bottles, one Napa winemaker opts for a testing method that costs more per cork. • Three major suppliers continue work on automated quality-control systems for corks. • Portocork is launching a study about how aroma flaws detected through sensory analysis can affect wine. Prior to a bottling in April, Brown Estate evaluates cork samples. C L O S U R E S