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CL OSURE S cork at a low cost to produce these discs, which will be the only part of the closure in direct contact with the wine. Some companies such as MA Silva offer a range of one-plus-ones graded by the visual quality of these end discs. This leads to perhaps the main reason one-plus-ones have been popular: cost. They're consid- erably cheaper than whole natural corks and compete favorably with synthetics and screwcaps—in many cases, undercut- ting them. "The main advantage of using a technical cork is price," says Adolfo Hernandez of MA Silva. "A natural cork can cost anywhere from 20 cents to over $2 each, but technical corks range from 6 cents to maybe 10 cents per stopper." cleaned in some way. should really be two-plus-one or one- plus-two.) Cork manufacturer MA Silva's version is called Silktop, while Cork Sup- ply USA offers the Vapex 1+1. The reasons behind the success of this closure are several. First, because the bulk of the closure is agglomerate, the one-plus-one is a pretty consistent closure with predictable levels of oxygen trans- mission. Second, because only relatively small discs of natural cork are needed, it's possible to source very high-quality Microagglomerates: the next generation While the one-plus-one is the most popular technical cork, it is rapidly being caught up to by a new generation of clo- sures known as microagglomerates. While the agglomerate portion of the one-plus- one is made up of relatively large particles of cork, microagglomerates are made up of much smaller granules that lend an altogether more attractive, uniform look. Because the agglomerate portion of the microagglos (as they are commonly referred to) is much more attractive, it is not sandwiched between cork discs. The first microagglomerate was the Altec, which was revolutionary at the time but turned out to be fatally flawed. Introduced in 1995 by French cork company Sabaté, Altec was made of finely ground cork flour glued together with synthetic microspheres to produce a cork- based closure that looked classy and had uniform properties. The synthetic micro- spheres were needed to provide a degree of elasticity to the Altec: Without them, the closures would have been too rigid, because of the very small size of the cork granules employed. The market, dissatisfied at the time with the quality of cheap natural cork and not convinced by the first genera- tion of synthetic corks, endorsed Altec to the tune of buying 2 billion units during the following years. (Remember, this is before the screwcap revolution, which began in Australia in 2000.) But grum- bling about the organoleptic impact of Altec soon started. Some people com- plained of a glue taint while, in fact, the problems were caused by a consistent low level of 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA, now commonly known as cork taint.) Using small granules of cork during the manufacturing process had spread out the TCA naturally present in the cork, so instead of having a few contaminated closures in a batch, every closure was contaminated to a low degree. Unfortu- nately for Sabaté, this low level of TCA was above the detection threshold for some tasters. It was a major disaster, and by 2002 sales plummeted. Four types of agglomerated corks—Champagne stoppers, one-plus-ones, microagglomerates and basic agglomerates—comprise the current lineup of wine closures made from treated cork particles. Wines & Vines AUGUsT 2011 33 MA SILVA OENEO-BOUCHAGE OENEO-BOUCHAGE