TRADITIONAL CORK
WITH
OXYGEN TRANSFER RATE (OTR) TECHNOLOGY
THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
September 2016
The newsletter from ProCork where technology and nature merge
Gérard Boulay
Recognition
In this newsletter we give a little profile about ProCork user Gérard Boulay. No doubt you would be aware of him and his wines and recent accolades.
“To my palate, Gérard Boulay is undoubtedly on the top tier of producers in Chavignol. His wines have a vibrant purity, evident ripeness, feel devoid of any raw varietal character and reflect the soils from which they are born. Indeed, in terms of purity and daringly racy, I do wonder whether he shouldn't be placed at the very top of the tier. I certainly find his wines sufficiently exciting, breath-taking in their assured poise, to suggest this might be the case.” Chris Kissack, winedoctor.com
The man himself has been described as ‘as focused and intense as his wines’. We find his respect for nature, terroir and history humbling. The correctness in his work is exacting: the soil is ploughed, no herbicides, no pesticides, yields are kept low, harvesting is by hand; in the winery there is no chapitalisation, no added yeasts or enzymes; and the wine is fermented naturally with no filtering unless the wine needs it. Some of the wines are fermented in old barrels. Very importantly his family history of winegrowing in Chavignol dates back to the 1300’s so there is significant craft and a little magic in all that he does.
Recognition
In this newsletter we give a little profile about ProCork user Gérard Boulay. No doubt you would be aware of him and his wines and recent accolades.
“To my palate, Gérard Boulay is undoubtedly on the top tier of producers in Chavignol. His wines have a vibrant purity, evident ripeness, feel devoid of any raw varietal character and reflect the soils from which they are born. Indeed, in terms of purity and daringly racy, I do wonder whether he shouldn't be placed at the very top of the tier. I certainly find his wines sufficiently exciting, breath-taking in their assured poise, to suggest this might be the case.” Chris Kissack, winedoctor.com
The man himself has been described as ‘as focused and intense as his wines’. We find his respect for nature, terroir and history humbling. The correctness in his work is exacting: the soil is ploughed, no herbicides, no pesticides, yields are kept low, harvesting is by hand; in the winery there is no chapitalisation, no added yeasts or enzymes; and the wine is fermented naturally with no filtering unless the wine needs it. Some of the wines are fermented in old barrels. Very importantly his family history of winegrowing in Chavignol dates back to the 1300’s so there is significant craft and a little magic in all that he does.
Cork Harvest 2016
We are coming to the end of the cork from 2015 harvest and look forward eagerly to the 2016 harvest. With the quality of the raw bark improving year on year for the last five years, due to better forest practices, we are anticipating some very nice cork this year. Our sensory test data from 2015 cork was 11% better than the 2014 cork.
Sensory versus TCA testing
ProCork has always used a combination of both tests simply because TCA is not the only cork taint that effects wine. Other examples of cork taints are 1 octen-3ol and furan. In 2016 we experimented with a sensory elimination technique where every cork is tested and individual corks with perceptible sensory taints are eliminated. Obviously this is suitable for only the very highest grades of cork where the expense can be justified.
Oxygen Transmission Rate
and
ProCork’s Selective Membrane
A major benefit of using ProCork’s specifically designed selective membrane technology with natural or technical cork is that the oxygen transmission rate is tightened and will always land in the optimum zone, where neither oxidation nor reduction will predominate. The graph below is from independent sensory data on bottles stored two year, the research was done by AWRI.
There will be more on this subject in future newsletters.
