Questions and Answers about DIAM

Does a Diam cork add other aromas or flavors to the wine?

No. The patented DIAMANT supercritical CO₂ process delivers a consistently neutral, TCA-free cork* closure which protects the winemaker's vision, allowing a wine's fruit, flavors and identity to develop as intended.

* Each DIAM cork is certified to contain releasable TCA below detectable levels of 0.5ng/L.

What is Diamant?

DIAMANT is a natural, chemical-free supercritical CO₂ process---proprietary to Oeneo Bouchage---used to extract contaminants from cork. The Diamant process results in completely neutral cork closures, meaning you experience only the aromas and flavors that the winemaker intended.

Is a Diam cork harder to pull out of a bottle of wine?

No. They are resilient and easy to extract, comparable to all other natural corks.

How is a Diam cork made?

Cork is harvested from forests in Portugal and Spain and then transported to our new state-of-the-art factory in Estremedura, Spain. The cork is first ground into 2mm granules, and the desirable suber is then separated from the less desirable lignin thorough densometric sorting. The cork granule then undergoes Oeneo's patented supercritical carbon dioxide extraction process, which removes TCA as well as 150 other undesirable compounds. The resulting cork granule is then blended with a neutral, FDA approved food grade binding agent and patented micro-spheres (to control permeability) and then individually molded into corks. After molding, the raw corks are then sanded to exacting final dimensions.

What does the Diamant process remove?

The process removes 2,4,6 TCA and 150 other compounds, many of which can have a negative effect on a wine's flavor and aroma.

Is there variation from one Diam cork to another?

No. Diam corks are guaranteed to be uniform in size, shape, neutrality and permeability.

Does the Diamant process use chemicals?

No. The Diamant process is environmentally friendly, non-toxic and non-flammable. We use only supercritical carbon dioxide to clean our cork granules.

Can a DIAM cork cause a wine to be corked?

No. DIAM corks are 100% cork TCA-free*: DIAM is a revolutionary new closure that solves TCA, oxidation and reduction problems.

* Each DIAM cork is certified to contain releasable TCA below detectable levels of 0.5ng/L.

Why is the Diam cork unusual?

A Diam cork has literally an immeasurable level of releasable 2,4,6 TCA -- under 0.5 ng/L. (That's 0.5 nanograms per liter or 0.5 parts per trillion!) This is a first in the cork (and wine) industry, a cork guaranteed to be TCA-free*. Although many other cork suppliers have been able to lower the level of releasable TCA in their closures, none have achieved this level of security.

* Each DIAM cork is certified to contain releasable TCA below detectable levels of 0.5ng/L.

Is wine 'corked' only from corks?

Each year roughly 20 billion bottles of wine worldwide are sealed with corks. Cork is a natural product with desirable physical characteristics (flexible, resilient, impermeable to liquid, relatively high oxygen barrier) ideally suited to preserving bottled wines. Cork interacts with wine, but this interaction is not inherently negative. A wine could be affected by cork because of its naturally internal heterogeneous structure: varying permeability from cork to cork, variable tannic contribution depending on the corks' origin, number of lenticels (superficial cork cracks) depending on cork quality, and lignin incrustations which are susceptible to host chemical reactions leading to the formation of chloroanisoles. Cork also can absorb external contaminants.

Are corks to blame for TCA-related taint?

Cork is certainly one source of TCA; another can be one of many environmental factors---thus the term 'cellar taint,' which can be come from vineyards, wooden structures in wineries, oak barrels, tanks, processing materials, bottling equipment, wooden pallets and cardboard.

Are corks outdated? are synthetic closures and screw caps are fundamentally better closures for wine?

Cork is a highly reliable and effective bottle-sealing agent that effectively preserves the integrity of wine by inhibiting improper oxidation. Alternative closures do not match all the physical performance of cork and may in fact bring in other issues such as 'reduction' or 'scalping,' a diminution of flavors found with screwcapped wines. Most importantly, research has shown that consumers simply prefer cork!

Can everyone identify the smell of TCA or a 'corked' wine?

No. The detection of TCA at extremely low levels is based on a perception of a sensory 'difference' rather than a recognizable 'taint.' Even so, detection of a sensory difference at low TCA levels, (say, less than 5 ng/L), requires an experienced taster, an odor-free and distraction-free venue and a sample of the pristine wine for comparison. The level of TCA at which a recognizable taint can be detected under ordinary circumstances is much higher and depends somewhat on the type and style of wine being tasted. Typically, TCA levels of 5 ng/l for a light white wine up to 10 ng/l for a red wine are considered minimum thresholds for detection. Increasingly sensitive analytical methods (SPME/GCMS) have contributed to analytical detection thresholds that can be as low as 0.5 to 1.0 ng/l. At these exceedingly low concentrations, there is no verifiable correlation between a sensory perception of taint and analytical findings.

Is TCA taint in wines a significant issue today?

Industry estimates of the percentage of wine bottles affected by taint are as high as 10%. If that estimate were accurate, that would translate to as many as 2 billion bottles of wine that do not reflect the flavors and aromas of the wine as the winemaker intended. The worst part is that consumers of these tainted bottles may not know why they don’t like the wine and they may simply assume that the wine brand is not appealing to them when in fact the wine is flawed.