After almost ten years of intensive internal research for alternative methods of closure, we have decided to use "DIAM" corks of the brand Diam-corks starting with an important part of our Classic range of the 2006 vintage. From vintage 2009 on, all of our production will be using this closure. This decision comes after the successful test we carried out with this closure on 375ml size bottles in the year 2004 and on a fraction of wines of the 2005 vintage. From vintage 2008 on, we started using DIAM in its latest presentation.
We have always observed - and this phenomenon is widely known in our profession as one of our main quality issue - that a fraction of the wines sealed with natural cork suffer from what is generally called "cork taint". In fact, this phenomenon seems to have become more marked in recent years, and so in 1998 we began to seriously investigate ways of overcoming the problem.
We studied and experimented with every different type of "cork" that existed on the market (agglomerated, treated, synthetic, 1 + 1 (composite), and screw-caps. For technical questions, the screw-caps is not suited to our way of working because all our wines are palletized or stored on bins, bottles unlabelled, before their labelling at times of shipping. The binning of bottles with these screw-caps closures poses potential problems of leaking on such bottles.
After countless tests conducted with great rigour by Marc Hugel as well as a recent 4 days visit of their premisses in Spain we have finally selected DIAM, manufactured by DIAM-Bouchage.
Nice alternative view by Australian authority James Halliday
Interesting recent article on the carbon footprint of DIAM cork.
This type of cork uses several new techniques :
In other words, in fact, this type of cork has a triple advantage :
The DIAM cork is the result of long years of research by the Diam-Bouchage company, and has obtained numerous awards and gold medals at professional wine shows.
For the past seven years we have tested this cork with great success, which has given us sufficient experience to make this choice with every confidence.
In fact, our research shows that the structure of these corks remains unchanged for much longer than 7 years, and we have yet to find a single leaking bottle (which is an added advantage).
Each "DIAM" cork that we will use will carry in addition of our traditional marking, the web address of our Internet site in order to inform our future users of the virtues of this new product.
Full details with the manufacturer's technical specifications on Diam-Bouchage
Also visit www.tcafreecorks.com
