New World Winery Equipment, LLC
Amorim Cork
One of the most commonly discussed and certainly one of the most necessary winemaking supplies is the cork. New World Winery Equipment, LLC is proud to be your exclusive Eastern agent for Amorim Cork America.
Something you may find interesting: You can take your Cork Certification Course here.
With its presence in multiple industries, Amorim represents over fifty percent of the total cork business in the world, which equates to over 3 billion corks sold annually in more than 37 countries, Amorim corks are the “gold standard” for quality and performance. The company maintains absolute control over every aspect of manufacturing. As a founding member of the Cork Quality Council (seen here), Amorim maintains their interest in quality of product first.
Something you may find interesting: You can take your Cork Certification Course here.
With its presence in multiple industries, Amorim represents over fifty percent of the total cork business in the world, which equates to over 3 billion corks sold annually in more than 37 countries, Amorim corks are the “gold standard” for quality and performance. The company maintains absolute control over every aspect of manufacturing. As a founding member of the Cork Quality Council (seen here), Amorim maintains their interest in quality of product first.
Why Amorim?
Amorim is taking the longest strides on every shipment to reduce the chances of cork taint in your wine.
See the article about the Rosa process below.
Amorim is taking the longest strides on every shipment to reduce the chances of cork taint in your wine.
See the article about the Rosa process below.
September 1st, 2004Newest Cork- cleaning Treatment Comes to Market
New treatment process promises to further decrease TCA levels, starting with Twin Tops.
by Cryil Penn
Your best choices in stoppers:
Natural Cork
The Natural Cork Stopper is recommended for reserve wines and wines that need to age in the bottle and satisfies the expectations of the best winemakers in the world. It is a 100% natural product and the result of high investment in technology to guarantee that the wine is aged in the best possible conditions.
Twin Top® stopper
The Twin Top® stopper is a technical cork stopper that is ideal for fruity wines and advisable for wines that are not designed for long aging in the bottle. Mechanically far superior to synthetic corks. With all the beneficial properties of the natural cork stopper, it continues to satisfy the demands of winemakers. Comprising an agglomerate body and a disk of natural cork on both ends, it can be used on the same bottling lines as Natural Cork Stoppers.
Spark® Stopper
The Spark® stopper achieved Worldwide recognicion for bottling the most prestigious Champagnes and Sparkling Wines. State-of-the-art Research and Technology made this stopper a winner, registering the highest mechanical, chemical and sensorial performances.
T-Cork® stopper
The T-Cork® stopper is a natural cork stopper with a range of different caps in plastic, wood and other materials, designed for bottling fortified wines and spirits. Given the alcoholic strength of the drink and the specific nature of the bottle, its function is to provide an efficient seal, easy manual extraction and repeated subsequent re-use. This stopper can be made from natural or colmated cork and its behavior is determined by the specific characteristics of each type.
Neutrocork® Stoppers
The latest Technical Stopper, a product of the new generation. Mechanically far superior to synthetic corks. Its key characteristic is its structural stability. It is suitable for wines for early consumption, that already show a certain complexity. Lower (by 50%) extraction force needed than synthetic corks. Better pricing.
Aquamark Corks
From the Natural Corks family these corks, with a bigger porosity percentage, go under a set of transformations to improve their visual appearance and performance during bottling.
Agglomerated Corks
These Cork stoppers are best suited for high rotation Wines where the ratio price/quality is key. They preserve a natural cork impression with the added appeal of technical efficiency.
For the Newcomer or Casual Observer: Cork 101
If you are not convinced yet to use a cork instead of a synthetic cork, a glass stopper, or a screw cap on your wine, please read below to hear our side of the argument.
Did you know that to make one ton of aluminum for screw caps, you make FOUR tons of carbon? Talk about a carbon footprint! Natural wine corks require the least amount of energy to manufacture.
Have you read that synthetic closures leak the most sulfur out, the most oxygen in? The low price argument is now won by our Neutrocork. We offer this new, micro- agglomerated cork which is made from small bits of treated cork and bonded with a food grade polymer. These offer one half the extraction force of synthetics, reinsertion, and an even better price than synthetics.
The glass stopper is a really neat idea. If you are one of the top 100 sized wineries in the U.S., the people who sell it probably are willing to talk to you.
Cork is natural, renewable, and recyclable. Some people still think they have to kill the tree to harvest cork. Not true. The bark is shaved roughly every nine years. Cork forests represent a partnership with nature and an ecology that removes greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Cork stoppers for wine are preferred by the majority of manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers, and consumers.
Consumers are the reason why the wine still comes in a bottle. As a startup, small, or medium- sized winery, from outside California, can you afford to gamble on low- buck packaging? Isn't it hard enough to get people to buy wine from somewhere besides California? Why take the risk? Unless the wine costs under $9.00, people expect a cork. And even when it is a low priced wine, we sell something that looks like cork.
History
Since Dom Perignon started using cork in the 1600's, the tradition of using cork as a wine stopper has been strong. Cork's position as the closure of choice in wine was largely unthreatened until the identification of TCA in modern wines. Never mind that TCA is an unharmful (offensive to the nose and capable of spoiling a wine, but unharmful) compound. Cork was demonized and the witch hunt began. Cork bore the brunt for the ensuing years, but stayed the course as it was discovered that TCA came from floor drains, wooden beams, dehumidifiers, and any other place where dirt, natural fiber, moisture, the ensuing mold population and chlorine had met. It seems that chlorine is a key component and all but the maverick or the uninformed have barred chlorine from the winery. Chlorine has been barred from breweries for the same reason. And they don't use corks! "Corked" has become a household name for any wine that is "off" or spoiled. The cork is not always to blame. Generally poor sanitation in a winery, bad chemistry in the lab, and sloppy winemaking techniques in general can lead to flawed wines. Many of the wine consumers of the world know a spoiled bottle when they open one. The truth is that few can actually identify a TCA tainted bottle. So anything substanderd is sometimes wrecklessly labeled "corked" in front of a dinner party.
If a wine is truly riddled with TCA, the reality is that TCA can come into the winery the same way it gets into fountain drinks or paper cups, but the consumer still says, "Corked". The truth is that TCA elimination in 2009 is as advanced as Polio elimination in the 1960's. Polio was rampant and seemingly random in the 40's and 50's until Salk developed a vaccine in 1955. The cork companies have made similar progress in the last decade.Since the mass hysteria and secular migration towards alternative closures, the cork industry at large has taken quality control and R&D to new levels.
Is it Corked? or Did the Cork Fail?
Is it a question of semantics? Since the closure argument started, off the cuff numbers from 2% to 10% have been thrown around in regard to cork failure. Failure must be defined. Assuming that the cork companies had eliminated 100% of the releasable TCA in cork, what then would define failure? Failure to seal? Bottles have been discovered in shipwrecks with cork and contents unharmed. The modern percentages are much lower for actual defective corks than they are for winemaking, bottling and storage errors. Excessive heat or cold in storage can ruin the cork seal. That does not imply cork taint. Errors in insertion and transport effect all closures. Enophiles around the world now proudly and pertly say "corked" whenever a bottle has not lived well. I contend that any unsound wine that has made it all the way to the table in front of guests will be labeled as such. We need to stop training the consumer to say "corked". If they recognize TCA or TCB, hire them for your tasting room. Most do not.
The life of the wine
Long term storage for quality wine demands a natural cork seal. Synthetic stoppers allow the most oxygen intrusion and the highest loss of SO2 over the life of the wine. As a winemaker, consider this. That alone is a reason to pause and reflect upon the viability of our Neutrocork as a lower cost, better sealing alternative to synthetics.
Screw caps and glass stoppers allow the least of each of the above but completely arrest the development of the wine in the bottle and do not contribute positively to the wine as it ages. The micro- oxygenation of the wine and contact with that 24mm wide chunk of cork oak actually flatter the wines that are designed for aging. Under a screw cap, reduction becomes the issue. This demands a change in winemaking style for the die- hard screw cap fan. To me, the lack of sulfur dissipation can create an offensive nose for the sulfur sensitive and necessitate decanting. I ask that if you use screw caps, trust the closure and act accordingly to prevent reduction. Lose your fear of spoilage under that theoretically superior closure and stop putting the sulphur level so high at bottling. Having the level of free SO2 high enough for ten years under cork in a screw cap wine is like wearing a parachute in a boat.
Hard stoppers also require more expensive bottling equipment to use. Translation: If you are selling a quick to market, immediate consumption type or "chill it and kill it" wine, you can and should be thinking about lower cost closures. And here is one within the family of corks that is designed to be a contender in this role. See "Neutrocork" (above).
In Summary
Scientific and industrial advances have dramatically decreased the risks associated with using natural cork. If you respect tradition enough to use a bottle, please use a closure made from cork. Your wine, the cork forest, New world winery Equipment, and Amorim Cork will thank you!
Did you know that to make one ton of aluminum for screw caps, you make FOUR tons of carbon? Talk about a carbon footprint! Natural wine corks require the least amount of energy to manufacture.
Have you read that synthetic closures leak the most sulfur out, the most oxygen in? The low price argument is now won by our Neutrocork. We offer this new, micro- agglomerated cork which is made from small bits of treated cork and bonded with a food grade polymer. These offer one half the extraction force of synthetics, reinsertion, and an even better price than synthetics.
The glass stopper is a really neat idea. If you are one of the top 100 sized wineries in the U.S., the people who sell it probably are willing to talk to you.
Cork is natural, renewable, and recyclable. Some people still think they have to kill the tree to harvest cork. Not true. The bark is shaved roughly every nine years. Cork forests represent a partnership with nature and an ecology that removes greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Cork stoppers for wine are preferred by the majority of manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers, and consumers.
Consumers are the reason why the wine still comes in a bottle. As a startup, small, or medium- sized winery, from outside California, can you afford to gamble on low- buck packaging? Isn't it hard enough to get people to buy wine from somewhere besides California? Why take the risk? Unless the wine costs under $9.00, people expect a cork. And even when it is a low priced wine, we sell something that looks like cork.
History
Since Dom Perignon started using cork in the 1600's, the tradition of using cork as a wine stopper has been strong. Cork's position as the closure of choice in wine was largely unthreatened until the identification of TCA in modern wines. Never mind that TCA is an unharmful (offensive to the nose and capable of spoiling a wine, but unharmful) compound. Cork was demonized and the witch hunt began. Cork bore the brunt for the ensuing years, but stayed the course as it was discovered that TCA came from floor drains, wooden beams, dehumidifiers, and any other place where dirt, natural fiber, moisture, the ensuing mold population and chlorine had met. It seems that chlorine is a key component and all but the maverick or the uninformed have barred chlorine from the winery. Chlorine has been barred from breweries for the same reason. And they don't use corks! "Corked" has become a household name for any wine that is "off" or spoiled. The cork is not always to blame. Generally poor sanitation in a winery, bad chemistry in the lab, and sloppy winemaking techniques in general can lead to flawed wines. Many of the wine consumers of the world know a spoiled bottle when they open one. The truth is that few can actually identify a TCA tainted bottle. So anything substanderd is sometimes wrecklessly labeled "corked" in front of a dinner party.
If a wine is truly riddled with TCA, the reality is that TCA can come into the winery the same way it gets into fountain drinks or paper cups, but the consumer still says, "Corked". The truth is that TCA elimination in 2009 is as advanced as Polio elimination in the 1960's. Polio was rampant and seemingly random in the 40's and 50's until Salk developed a vaccine in 1955. The cork companies have made similar progress in the last decade.Since the mass hysteria and secular migration towards alternative closures, the cork industry at large has taken quality control and R&D to new levels.
Is it Corked? or Did the Cork Fail?
Is it a question of semantics? Since the closure argument started, off the cuff numbers from 2% to 10% have been thrown around in regard to cork failure. Failure must be defined. Assuming that the cork companies had eliminated 100% of the releasable TCA in cork, what then would define failure? Failure to seal? Bottles have been discovered in shipwrecks with cork and contents unharmed. The modern percentages are much lower for actual defective corks than they are for winemaking, bottling and storage errors. Excessive heat or cold in storage can ruin the cork seal. That does not imply cork taint. Errors in insertion and transport effect all closures. Enophiles around the world now proudly and pertly say "corked" whenever a bottle has not lived well. I contend that any unsound wine that has made it all the way to the table in front of guests will be labeled as such. We need to stop training the consumer to say "corked". If they recognize TCA or TCB, hire them for your tasting room. Most do not.
The life of the wine
Long term storage for quality wine demands a natural cork seal. Synthetic stoppers allow the most oxygen intrusion and the highest loss of SO2 over the life of the wine. As a winemaker, consider this. That alone is a reason to pause and reflect upon the viability of our Neutrocork as a lower cost, better sealing alternative to synthetics.
Screw caps and glass stoppers allow the least of each of the above but completely arrest the development of the wine in the bottle and do not contribute positively to the wine as it ages. The micro- oxygenation of the wine and contact with that 24mm wide chunk of cork oak actually flatter the wines that are designed for aging. Under a screw cap, reduction becomes the issue. This demands a change in winemaking style for the die- hard screw cap fan. To me, the lack of sulfur dissipation can create an offensive nose for the sulfur sensitive and necessitate decanting. I ask that if you use screw caps, trust the closure and act accordingly to prevent reduction. Lose your fear of spoilage under that theoretically superior closure and stop putting the sulphur level so high at bottling. Having the level of free SO2 high enough for ten years under cork in a screw cap wine is like wearing a parachute in a boat.
Hard stoppers also require more expensive bottling equipment to use. Translation: If you are selling a quick to market, immediate consumption type or "chill it and kill it" wine, you can and should be thinking about lower cost closures. And here is one within the family of corks that is designed to be a contender in this role. See "Neutrocork" (above).
In Summary
Scientific and industrial advances have dramatically decreased the risks associated with using natural cork. If you respect tradition enough to use a bottle, please use a closure made from cork. Your wine, the cork forest, New world winery Equipment, and Amorim Cork will thank you!