As the winemaker’s last choice before wines go in the bottle, cork has played an important role in wine ever since bottles could be made with consistent necks. The consistency of corks is another challenge that Diam is tackling. Francois Margot, Director of Sales, North America describes how Diam is creating corks with choices and consistency for aging, oxygen transfer, and initial oxygen release. Don’t forget to support the show on Patreon!Detailed Show Notes: Diam CorksCork was originally used for wine bottles when glass could be made with regular necks, chosen because it’s elastic to close the bottleElasticity goes down slowly over timeRegular corks are not consistent, Diam developed them to provide consistencyConsistency with structure and oxygen ingress - granulates corks (granulation spreads contamination everywhere) and then cleaned them (w/ supercritical CO2)Cleaned to be undetectable by gas chromatography (down to 0.3 nanograms/liter)Clean more than TCA, but all anisole molecules (150+ compounds)Can choose the aging potential and amount of O2 ingress for wine needsCost of closuresPunch corks - different prices based on looks of closures (no impact on consistency)Diam - 10-80 cents/corkValue proposition of Diam#1 - consistency – both in aging and oxygen transfer#2 - Not tainting wine – if ~3% of wines are tainted, recover the full value; can detect TCA as low as 1 nanogram/liter, not 1 case of TCA in 20 yearsOther producers sort corks#3 – winemaker choice – able to choose closures based on desired evolution of the wineBrand value – avoided destruction of brand value from tainted corksNo additional bottling line setup – e.g. – screwcaps require setting up a different bottling line with different componentsDiam is not as sensitive to humidity vs. regular corksBuilding the ROI – look at claims and returned bottles that will be avoidedRange of Diam productsRange based on aging capacity – 5-30 yearsRange of OTRs (oxygen transfer rates) and OIRs (oxygen initial release) – 3 options of OTR and OIROxygen ingress from corks in non-linear – initial oxygen enters wine from cork in the first 6 months (OIR), and then some oxygen passes through cork (OTR)Wines for long aging may desire higher initial oxygen ingress (OIR), but lower long-term oxygen levels (OTR)Began differentiating OTR and OIR 3 years ago2 main patentsCleaning process – removes 150+ compounds from corkRe-building process – ensures elasticity of cork, contains 3 ingredients – cork (~95%), binding agents, beeswax/plastic microspheres which fill in holes and prevent moisture in the corkCan use any thickness of cork, including thinner blocks, buys from the same producers as regular corksRemoves woody part of cork (lignin), which is up to 20-40% of bark, and uses it to burn for electricity; keeps suberin part, which is the elastic partBurgundy premox issues – Diam has helped but the issue is not just the closureDiam for sparkling wineRegular corks are 24mm in diameter, Champagne corks 30-31mm in diameter“Mytic” brand of Diam corks – same structure as regular Diam corks, but bigger diameterDiam has ~30% market share for sparkling wineCIVC doing research into O2 into wineComing out with cork for tirage next year to provide options vs crown caps, which give consistent OTR Get access to library episodes Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.