Have perceptions of TCA improved in a decade?
Have the investment and new product development measures taken by cork manufacturers during the last decade to better control TCA (the chemical that causes musty, mouldy taint in wine had any real impact on our perceptions of cork as an effective stopper?
Cork stoppers – with extra membrane?
In the last decade businesses have been enticed alongside the cork industry, providing new barrier technologies to modify cork performance.
Airocide
Equipment developed in the 1990s by NASA to keep fruit and vegetables growing and healthy on the space station has been found to remove airborne TCA – trichloroanisole, the chemical that causes mouldy, musty taint in wine.
New wine stoppers
There is an increasing range of wine-bottle stoppers coming onto the market, both for still and sparkling wines. The latest products are all here.
Oxygen gets into closed bottles
Far from being hermetic seals, oxygen gets into wine even though the bottle is still sealed. Closure manufacturers make their cases.
Packaging formats, recycling and improving sustainability
Lower carbon emissions can be achieved by taking weight out of packaging, especially where long distances are travelled from point of packaging to destination market. Lighter weight glass, wine in cans, pouches and composite cartons … it’s all up for grabs.
Cork oak forests
The ‘business’ forests of the Mediterranean cork oak landscapes.
Cork industry invests to remove musty taint
How the cork industry finally took seriously the musty/mouldy taint of TCA.
Random oxidation – the facts
What causes occasional bottles of wine to become oxidised? Is it the stopper, whether cork, screwcap or synthetic? Or is it much more complex an issue?
