In May this year we were alerted to a significant difference found in a Chablis 1er cru Fourchaume 2018, which was bottled with two different micro-granulated technical corks. One had the ProCork semi-crystalline polymer membrane protecting the wine from contact with the cork and glue materials and the other used the leading brand of technical cork in the market which was unprotected.

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The taster was Jean-Marc Quarin, a well known, independent and influential wine critic in Bordeaux. He has a reputation for publishing exactly what is in the bottle the consumer buys. Jean-Marc Quarin is the only critic in the world who publishes wine comments that identify who produced the cork that was so intimate with the wine for so long. For over 25 years he has been regularly bringing up the enormous problem of the difference from one bottle to another in the most famous and most expensive Bordeaux wines. Since 2004 he has also been writing comments under the title he coined “The cork, wine’s ultimate dimension”. In addition, Jean-Marc Quarin has written a tasting method called "Palate over nose". He teaches how to recognize the mouth descriptors responsible for the quality and the style of wine. 

 

Jean-Marc Quarin came across the wine, which was bottled 6 months prior, so out of interest he did a number of professional blind tastings over various time periods. In his findings, Quarin noted a significant effect tannin had on the wine in contact with the unprotected cork. It resulted in a loss of silkiness in the mouthfeel and increased bitterness and acidity. We commissioned SENSENET, an independent perfume sensory laboratory in Paris, to undertake an analysis of the molecular differences in the two wines.

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SENSENET confirmed Jean-Marc Quarin's observation of increased tannin in the unprotected wine by measuring a 25% increase. This demonstrates how much even a small interference by cork tannin can effect the wine quality and it confirms the Wine Critic, Jean-Marc Quarin.

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You can read the report here.

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