Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/467731
w w w. v w m m e d i a . c o m M a r - A p r 2 015 | V I N E YA R D & W I N E RY M A N A G E M E N T 8 3 pendent research with the aim of eliminating 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA) in natural cork closures. That year, I was among the first group of American wine journalists brought to Portugal to learn about the indus- try's new quality initiative. Improved practices and process- es included: no longer using the bark closest to the ground for wine stoppers, as it was shown to be the most prone to TCA development; drying cork planks in the open air instead of the forest to stabilize the cork and prevent TCA contamina- tion; boiling planks in a high-pres- sure, closed-top washing system to remove volatile compounds; and utilizing laser technology and com- puters to detect physical defects. (These practices are now widely used in Portugal.) In the years to follow, new pro- prietary systems were introduced to deal with the cork taint issue, such as Amorim's ROSA process (introduced in 2003), in which pres- surized water and steam are used to force out volatile contaminants from the cork; and Cork Supply's Innocork process (2005), which uses a mixture of steam and etha- nol to extract TCA. I visited Portugal this past sum- mer to see how far the industry has come since the initiative was launched, and learn about the latest cork quality developments. BEARING FRUIT Since APCOR's program was implemented in 2003, the natural declined over the last decade from about 95% to 70%. According to APCOR president João Rui Ferreira, natural cork is starting to take back market share, but screwcaps are also gaining. "TCA is like cancer," said Valle of Amorim. "We don't have a cure." However, there are improved con- trol, prevention and curative mea- sures that can help mitigate the problem. IN THE FOREST AND FACTORY At Amorim's facility in Coruche, Valle highlighted some of these modern measures. Prevention begins in the for- est. Until recently, harvested cork planks were kept in the forest to dry for six to nine months before being sent to processing facilities. Today it's understood that the big- gest TCA concentration is found in the soil, so leaving the cork on the ground exposes it to contamina- tion. Now the cork is taken directly to cement lots to dry and stabilize. At the processing facility, corks are boiled only in water. The use of chlorine in cork processing is now illegal in Portugal, since it was shown to encourage TCA contami- cork industry has invested more than 500 million euros in research and development. This makes cork one of the most closely studied and best understood raw materials in history. That investment has made a significant impact on cork quality; according to the Cork Quality Coun- cil, the average TCA level in cork shipments to the United States has decreased 95% since 2001. B u t t h e c o r k i n d u s t r y c a n 't afford to stop there. While it was getting its act together, alternative closures gained a solid foothold in the U.S. market, and natural cork producers' global market share Raul Valle of Amorim explains that cork planks are stored in a cement yard, rather than the forest, to dry and stabilize. + In 2002, the Portuguese cork producers association launched an extensive quality initiative to address the cork taint issue. + New practices were adopted in the forest and new technology implemented at production facilities. + Today the industry continues to advance, with millions spent annually on research and development. + Newly developed proprietary systems will make it possible for cork producers to guarantee TCA-free stoppers. AT A GLANCE