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CORK
THE
N AT U R AL
CHOICE
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C O R K – T H E N AT U R A L C H O I C E
For centuries, cork has proved to be the most effective closure for
wine, protecting its qualities and allowing it to develop and
improve over time. Dom Pérignon first used cork in champagne
and started a revolution in wine bottling. It is still the winemaker’s
first choice and is recognised the world over as the ideal partner
for wine. Amorim, the world’s largest manufacturer of corks for
wine, has worked with this remarkable natural material since 1870.
Cork’s inert nature, its impermeability to liquids, its flexibility,
its ability to compact and expand and its extraordinary
resilience, makes it second to none as a reliable stopper for
wine. Cork allows wine to achieve its full ageing potential. It is
overwhelmingly preferred by consumers.
Cork is one of the few forms of packaging that is completely
environmentally friendly – it is natural, renewable, fully recyclable and biodegradable.
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A S U S TA I N A B L E R E S O U R C E
The continuing demand for corks from the drinks industry helps
ensure the future of the vast forests of cork found around the
western Mediterranean basin. In Portugal alone there are more
than 670,000 hectares of cork forests, which produce more than
half the world’s cork.
The area under cork forest is growing by 4 per cent a year,
thanks to a large-scale re-afforestation programme.
Management of the cork forests in Portugal – from cultivation to
harvesting – is strictly controlled. The trees cannot be cut down
without permission and the bark can only be stripped once every
nine years.
Cork is a truly sustainable resource. The cork oak tree has a
lifespan of around 170 – 200 years during which time it will be
stripped around 15 – 18 times. Today’s forest is relatively young
– the average cork oak is 72 – 75 years – ensuring sufficient cork
to supply the world’s winemakers for the next 100 years.
A cork tree has to be at least 25 years old before the first harvest
and it is not until the third harvest that the bark can be used for
the production of wine corks. Bark from the first two harvests
(Virgin and Secondary) are used for other cork products.
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The harvest takes place between June and September because at
this time of the year the tree is growing. This means that the
bark can be easily removed from the trunk and a new outer
skin grows quickly to protect the inner bark. Stripping the outer
bark is a very delicate operation carried out by skilled workers
using special axes.
The oldest cork oak tree, the “Whistler tree” is more than 215
years old. When last harvested in 1991 it yielded 1,200kilograms
of cork which produced around 100,000 wine corks.
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A GUARANTEE OF QUALITY
The scale of Amorim’s operation gives it access to the best quality
raw material. Amorim’s corks are produced under meticulous
quality control using the most modern equipment.
After harvest the bark is seasoned for six months in the open air,
stacked on pallets above the ground. It is boiled in water at
100˚C for 90 minutes to remove contaminants. The planks are
then left to stabilise for two to three weeks. The bark is sorted
into quality categories before being boiled and dried again. Only
the best quality bark is chosen for natural cork stoppers and
discs for sparkling wine and Twin Top ® corks. The corks are
punched mechanically or by highly skilled workers, who can
punch up to 20,000 corks a day.
These corks are machine-sorted into seven grades before
being sterilised in a hydrogen peroxide solution. They are then
dried to 6 per cent – 8 per cent humidity, sorted again – this
time by hand – branded according to customers’ specifications
and, finally, given a surface coating to facilitate insertion
and extraction.
The coded batches are vacuum-packed in polyethylene bags into
which sulphur dioxide is introduced.
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The corks undergo exhaustive quality control and testing at
each stage of processing. Amorim has testing laboratories in
each plant, as well as its central laboratory. In addition to taste
and sensory analysis, the battery of tests cover humidity and
microbiological content, capillarity, recovery, sealing ability and
performance over time.
To ensure optimal performance, Amorim provides guidelines for
winemakers on storing and handling corks. These include:
●
Storing in cool conditions – clean, well ventilated, free from
volatile or aromatic products, temperature of 15 – 20˚C, relative
humidity of 50 – 70 per cent.
●
Compression not exceeding 15.5mm for a 24mm diameter cork.
●
Rapid insertion to avoid creasing at lower end of cork.
●
Storing bottles upright for a specified period after corking, to
allow the cork to recover and ensure a perfect seal.
●
Head space of at least 15mm between the cork and the wine at
20˚C to accommodate temperature variations.
●
Corker jaws set to correct diameter – good maintenance of
corker. Using CO2 or vacuum during bottling to minimise
internal pressure and the risk of leakage.
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TYPES OF CLOSURE
Amorim produces a wide range of corks that meet the
highest technical performance standards.
NATURAL CORKS
Punched whole from the best quality
cork bark, then sterilised and finished
to the highest quality standards, the
natural wine cork is unsurpassed as a
wine closure.
The secret to its performance lies in its
unique cell structure, which no technology has been able to emulate. Cork
consists of a honeycomb structure of
tiny impermeable cells filled with an
air-like gas – about 40 million per
cubic centimetre. This structure
makes cork very easy to compress and
so less liable to damage from corking
machines. (The cork also contains
lenticels or pores that run across the
grain. Because natural corks are
punched along the grain, these
lenticels do not come into contact
with the wine.)
The cushion-like cork cells have elastic
memory. When compressed they
constantly try to return to their original
size, thus maintaining a tight even
seal. Being elastic, cork is also more
tolerant than other materials of
changes of temperature and pressure.
Moreover, because cork recovers its
shape gradually, it is able to conform
to the shape of the bottle without the
formation of microcreases that would
allow oxygen migration. The same
characteristic allows it to compensate
for imperfections in the bottle neck.
It has taken many years and today’s
technology to understand why cork is
such an outstanding wine closure, but
its performance over time speaks for
itself.
The discovery in 1956 of a wine dated
1789 in a cellar in Indre et Loire and
the 1998 recovery of champagne from
the Baltic Sea after 80 years – both
with the contents well preserved –
stand as a testimony to natural cork’s
performance as a wine closure.
TWIN TOP ® CORKS
Based on the successful design of the
sparkling wine cork, Twin Top® is a high
quality technical cork that combines
the best raw material with the latest
technology and experience of Amorim.
Twin Top ® corks have discs of fine
natural cork cut across the grain, at
either end and a granulated cork
body made from high-grade natural
cork left over after cork punching.
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The discs undergo a revolutionary
new process of ‘hydro d y n a m i c
extraction’ that removes contaminants
from the cork.
This process, called INOS II, is the
world’s most advanced and efficient
cork decontamination technology. It
is the result of six years intensive
scientific and technological research,
and is exclusive to Amorim.
INOS II completely washes the
inner section of the cork, pumping
a purified solution into and out of
the cork’s lenticels or pores. The
pumping action extracts any resident
particles. The purified hot water
extracts any substances that would
be otherwise dissolved by the wine
and affect its flavour.
In trials in the USA, Europe and
Australia, Twin Top ® has passed the
most demanding physical, chemical,
microbiological and oenological tests.
It provides the highest possible quality
at a competitive, stable price.
From June 1999, Amorim will produce
Twin Top® in Australia.
Twin Top® is a registered brand name of Amorim.
SPARKLING WINE CORKS
The successful forerunner to Twin
Top®, the cork for sparkling wine is
the product of a nine-year research
programme by Amorim.
At one end these corks have two or
three discs of fine natural cork, which
undergo a sophisticated washing and
deodorising process. This removes
contaminants that could otherwise
impart flavours to the wine.
The body is made from a single
moulding of high-quality natural
granulated cork, giving it uniform
physical and mechanical characteristics.
Sparkling wine corks undergo the most
stringent quality control procedures
and meet the highest physical,
chemical, microbiological and oenological standards.
BAR TOP CORKS
The bar top cork consists of a small
natural cork, rounded or chamfered
at one end with a cap at the other end
– of wood, porcelain, metal or hard
synthetic materials. It is commonly
used in fortified wines, spirits and fine
olive oils.
The bar top cork has a special surface
treatment to improve the natural sealing
properties of the cork and allow the
stopper to be easily removed and
replaced over time.
COLMATED CORKS
Colmated cork is made from lower
grade natural cork, having some larger
lenticels or structural imperfections.
After the corks are punched and
washed, the lenticels are filled with a
mixture of fine natural cork particles
and a food-grade natural latex to seal
the cork and improve the performance
of the stopper. A special surface
treatment is applied to ensure the
integrity of the stopper.
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Amorim is the world’s leading producer of cork. Its heritage goes
back 130 years and its operations span the globe. Amorim carries
out one fifth of the world’s cork processing and employs 35
distribution companies worldwide to handle its cork products.
Each year Amorim produces over 3 billion wine corks.
Amorim is at the forefront of technological advances in the cork
industry, spending over $US 6 million (£4 million) a year on
research and development to help fulfill its quality commitment to
the wine industry. Amorim strongly supports the European Cork
Federation’s (C.E. Liège) Code of Practice Two, to be introduced
during 1999, which includes refinements to production processes
and the introduction of company audits to ensure that compliance
with standards.
Amorim’s advanced technology and exhaustive quality controls
enable it to offer winemakers throughout the world a truly high
performance product.
Already 99.5 per cent of Amorim’s natural wine corks pass the
most rigorous testing. Amorim’s goal is to produce a completely
fault free natural cork product in the near future.
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C
The world’s leading winemakers place their trust
in corks made by Amorim.
Amorim, PO Box 1 - 4536 Santa Marie de Lamas Codex - Portugal
Telephone (351 2) 747 5500, Fax 351 (2) 747 5501, E-mail [email protected]