Does a 2007 study actually pertain to the current Nomacorc construction?
All of this is really a moot point. There’s another thread discussing new fangled corks with a guaranteed to be free of TCA at the low cost of $15 a cork. Apparently money does solves everything.
Because the cork industry has always been honest and forthright with consumers.
As we all know, TCA is just one of the potential issues with natural corks . . .
Agreed. That is why I tacked it on at the end and didn’t attempt to reference the findings specifically.
Gas on the fire. I know the 10% failure rate is a stat generated by those promoting selling natural cork alternatives but couldn’t help myself.
I see. I thought you were generalizing, but you were actually talking about this one specific instance. I’ll have to search for some threads where this has been discussed. If there are any specific ones you can link to, I’d appreciate it. I am more than a little wary because of the amount of wine I’ve seen ruined by (probably earlier versions of) Nomacork and other synthetics, but I’m very interested in seeing what research has been done.
Search for Hardy Wallace and Nomacorc. Not a lot of specific research cited, but he has been the most vocal about the closure.
How long ago was that? Were you using one of the newer Nomacork products?
Thanks. I just did a quick search and found a few posts, one pretty long one, but absolutely no references to any research, let alone years-long studies. I still think the whole idea of “he must know best because his money is on the line” is quite irrational. Maybe I’m missing something. He obviously believes in the product, as I would expect him to, but I do wonder how much he knows at this point about what happens over the course of a few years under that closure. If I’m missing something, hopefully someone will point it out.
I have seen a LOT of wine oxidize in only a couple of years under Nomacorc products. The company kept saying they’d fixed that problem with the new generation, and it apparently was not true the first couple of times. Maybe it is this time, but I seriously wonder why anyone is taking their word for it.
Wine research in this country is becoming more and more challenging. The government does not like to fund research involving alcohol and we as an industry are not set up to ‘self fund’ research as they are in Australia and possibly other countries as well.
Much of the research that we are dependent upon for closures has come from Australia - their landmark study starting in the early 2000s continues to be the most comprehensive and everything since pales in comparison.
The Portuguese government and leading Portuguese cork companies are continuing to ‘fund studies’ dealing with natural corks - such as the ‘study’ that shows what % of the Top 100 WS wines were bottled under natural cork, with the implication that ‘only the best wines are bottled’ using this closure.
Those waiting for ‘comprehensive studies’ looking at these closures unfortunately will probably never receive what they are hoping to receive - and we’ll have to depend upon ‘anecdotal’ datapoints. In many cases, these will come from ‘leading wineries’ but in most, they will come directly from the producers of those closures.
Nomacorc certainly has some ‘PR’ issues based on past ‘issues’ - and some will not forgive them moving forward. I wonder why the same can’t be said for ‘natural cork’ producers who have been producing ‘knowingly faulty’ products for quite some time 
Cheers.
The new Nomacorc is supposed to have very good resistance to oxidation, whereas the old one was very poor in this respect. We have had very good luck with the new ones; obviously no risk of TCA and so far very good consistency too.
Oliver,
How long have you been using them? What types of wines? And the plant based ones? And did you do bottling under different closures to compare side by side?
Cheers.
Doug, I don’t believe we’re going to see eye to eye here. I’ve been buying Hardy’s wines for several years and have never had a single issue with the Nomacorc seals (or his wines). During that time, I’ve gotten to know Hardy fairly well and can say with 100% certainty that he would never make a decision he didn’t feel was in the best interest of the wine and consumer. This is a guy who spends an irrational amount of time considering/researching/investigating every single aspect of the winemaking process in order to deliver the best possible product to the consumer. If there ever was an issue with a bottle, I know that Hardy would take care of it. Plenty of people can speak to that. So knowing what I know about Hardy, and my expereince with his wines to date, it would be completely irrational for me to not believe he knows what’s best for his wine. Maybe that’s a crazy leap of faith, but it’s one I’ve been comfortably taking for some time.
And any issues with removal?
As I have mentioned before, the Nomacorcs on the D&R wines are very difficult to remove.
If I recall correctly about three years; both whites and reds, mostly low-to-middle priced. We’re an importer, not a producer, so we encourage our producers to use certain closures (and refuse others, such as non-Diam micro-agglomerates) but can’t do the comparison you refer to. IIRC the old Nomacorc were one of the horrible plastic stoppers with very short lifespans, the new ones are entirely different and have the reputation of being much more consistently resistant to oxidation than bark cork.
I don’t generally try to tell my producers how to make wine but I am very annoying about closures.
No, none. I don’t know how many different types of closure Nomacorc make, mostly I think we are seeing something called Select Green or Select Bio.
Sounds like what Hardy is using (or very similar). I have had numerous issues getting corks out of bottles. One broken corkscrew, a few chipped bottle lips, etc. Don’t have that issue with anything else.
Baffling.
I think ease of extraction and ease of re-insertion have both been problems with alternative closures, but at least the wine tastes reliably good. I push for screw caps too, but it’s not a realistic option for many of my producers, unfortunately.
David, when pulling the cork, are you using a reverse Aussie underhand or a modified continental switchback grip? I’ve heard that the modified continental can present some issues.