TCA — The Problem

TCA Molecule One of the biggest issues confronting the wine industry today continues to be the presence of off flavors in corks

The culprit is thought to be 2,4,6 TCA (trichloranasole - at right ) either from corks or from cellars contaminated with TCA. TCA in miniscule amounts, measured in parts per trillion, can cause these off flavors. Whatever the source, whatever the threshold — the problem for winemakers is that consumers easily confuse the mustiness of wine tainted with TCA as a flavor characteristic of a wine, making it less than enjoyable. And guess what? The consumer certainly won't choose that wine next time.

Today there are several possible solutions to TCA contamination. You could use a plastic cork… you could use a screwcap… But the perfect solution would be a cork which does not have TCA and which is totally uniform and consistent, reliable and dependable. Consumers are used to cork and expect real cork in their wines. Cork is an environmentally sound material that is both biodegradable and a renewable resource. The big cork companies have been working on an array of processes for many years to 'clean' corks of TCA and other compounds. So far they have only been able to develop a process that can reduce TCA levels by an estimated 80%. Not very useful when only a few parts per trillion can ruin good wine…

There is a solution: DIAM (the name is an abbreviation for what is known as the Diamant process) is a cork made from natural cork granules which have been decontaminated using a high tech solution known as super critical CO₂ (super critical is a physical state 'between' a liquid and a gas, where carbon dioxide acts as a very efficient solvent to remove TCA molecules —as well as 150 other compounds); the same process used in the food industry to remove bitter compounds from hops for beer and caffeine from coffee beans and nicotine from tobacco. Oeneo Bouchage, based in Ceret, in the south of France, and the French Atomic Agency worked together to adapt the technology to address the issue of TCA contamination in corks.

The Diam cork is the only cork closure available on the international market today which has TCA at levels below detection thresholds of 0.05ng/l or one half of one part per trillion. DIAM corks are produced in a brand new state-of-the-art plant in Estremadura, Spain, where Oeneo reduces the "noble" part of the cork bark into 2 mm granules. Those granules are then put through the patented DIAMANT super critical CO₂ processes; then the granules are individually molded into a 'technological' cork, a composite of the now-processed cork granules plus micro-spheres designed to fill the voids between the granules and an FDA approved food-grade binding agent.

The DIAM cork is being used by more than 1,800 wineries in over 20 countries. In North America, clients include Freemark Abbey, Rays Station, Stonestreet, Martin Ray Winery, Girard Winery, Langtry Estate, Crew Wines, Cosentino Winery and many others.