You are absolutely right, I do not disagree with any of that.
But there has been significant testing and although not for 20 or 30 years, I would think that any reaction of the synthetic with the alcohol could have been established before that? It is not there is a sudden reaction overnight after 15 years or so. And I think in laborotories they have processes to measure these long term effects actually in an expedited manner. This I expect to have been thoroughly tested. But you are right, we will only be able to conclusively establish it for ourselves in 15 to 20 years.
On the elasticity, I am actually not worried about that. Being a bit familiar with high end plastics, I know that there are variants that have proven their capabilities over far longer periods.
Absolutely true on the longer track record of corks with and without wax capsules, but that is not an argument in itself. It is simply that back in the day when they started with corks they did not have the capabilities to do synthetics.
But the issues with corks can be plentiful as well. We know that it can ruin a wine (and by that I mean transfer a bad taste / smell to the wine), that the cork can allow for seepage, that it does not fit well etc, and that there can be huge bottle variety because of some of the aforementioned issues…
From what I have heard and read, Ponsot wants to eliminate bottle variety and ‘corked bottles’, but still allow for oxygen penetration in a very controlled manner. This cork should do that in his opinion. Having popped a couple of bottles and really dissected the cork, I must say it is a pretty impressive / well thought out design.
I guess I am just more on the positive end of the spectrum versus a lot of others. Maybe there is also a bit of wishful thinking here, as I have a lot of Ponsot wines (both before and after the introduction of the synthetic cork)… But all closures have their defects, be it a normal cork, a cork with a wax sealing and perhaps also this synthetic one. But if it works, this synthetic one may just be the most perfect one out there. I have my skin in the game, let’s hope I am right!
At harvest last year I got to taste a 2004 Cote de Nuits Villages with David Clark, who was one of the original “alpha testers” of the synthetic cork that Ponsot is using, against the released wine that was under cork. Both tasted very similar to each other. I expected the synthetic to be fresher like a screwcapped bottle would so maybe it does mimic a cork re oxygen ingress. Obviously a VERY limited sample size so take with a pinch of NaCl.
I agree with your point #1…both that specific issue, and with all the possible unforseen problems that may come up.
About the elasticity tho, the folks that designed the cork applied a lot of mechanical engineering talent to come up with a design that would retain it’s elasticity over time. Maybe they’re wrong and it’ll lose this earlier than expected…but my bet is they got this right and problems will be in areas that they didn’t expect.
I agree with #3…however, there are the reports that corks used now are only (on average) 7 years old when the bark is harvested…otoh, the bark was (on average) 22 years old when corks were used 20 years ago. What effect will using corks that are so much younger? We really have no idea.
The most concerning thing I’ve heard about these corks was from Laurent Ponsot when he talked about how the bottling equipment had to be the right equipment and the corks had to be inserted into the bottle in just a certain way. Made it sound like perfect (or near perfect) insertion (of these new corks) is required 100% of the time, and in my experience that’s not realistic. But this is a somewhat ‘touchy-feely’ concern.
I was thinking no way until I read the article and the associated pieces including material available on the producers web site. I am a buyer of this design.
There seems plenty of ‘hearsay’ or ‘urban myth’ about whether wax can seal against oxygen or not. So a couple of quotes lifted directly from a 1999 study:
Australian Journal of Grape and Wine Research 5, 66–70, 1999
C.P KEENAN, M.Y. GÖZÜKARA, G.B.Y. CHRISTIE and D.N. HEYES
Measurements of paraffin wax permeability, with and
without additives, indicated that waxes are effective barriers
to oxygen compared to other packaging films.
Additives conferred a slight decrease in O2P, but the effect
was not statistically significant. The oxygen permeability
value for paraffin wax film lies between candelilla wax
and high density polyethylene film (HDPE).
Oxygen permeabilities for paraffin wax with and
without additives were about 2–2.4 times greater than
those of candelilla and carnauba waxes.
So, wax can be a good barrier, but then why do many producers prick some holes in the top of their wax seal…(?)
PS I realise they were mainly talking about cork coatings (slip agents) but the permeability of waxes comments holds…
Cork studies have shown large differences in permeability from one cork to another. So I’m not convinced that huge differences between old bottles are always due to storage or handling. Just not sure if the proportion is significant.
Screw caps can be made with more repeatable and predictable permeability than cork, so slow oxygen ingress can be similar to that of a “properly” functioning cork. Then of course the next question is “how much permeability is proper?” Would you prefer 20-year caps for your cellar or 50-year caps for the wines you bought for your children?
I apologise if this has already been posted but here’s a video interview of Laurent Ponsot about his decision to change to this new [ex Guala] Ardea Seal Elite closurefor all his wines from the 2008 vintage.
The ArdeaSeal was originally produced by the Italian Guala organisation and was trialled IIRC in Europe and South Africa for several years before being ‘handed back’ to its inventors because it apparently wasn’t making the market penetration necessary to compete against the range of screwcap closures Guala also makes.
The inventors [apparently some MIT involvement is claimed] have continued with the project and Ponsot is probably the highest profile user.
Leflaive was mentioned earlier in this thread and Olivier Leflaive has certainly used the closure but I haven’t seen any reports that Anne-Claude has done so.
David Clark inter alia has used the closure and in discussion he said that he only used it once (back when it was called Guala Seal) to close 200 bottles of his first vintage, 2004 (the other 600 bottles of the same wine are under cork). He was attracted by what appears to be a reasoned engineering solution to the problem of replacing the cork. He didn’t keep many of those 200 bottles, but enough to have followed the wine’s evolution at the rate of about one bottle per year. During the first couple of years post-bottling the Guala Seal wine was possibly slightly more reductive than cork, but after that time the wines were very similar – perhaps the Guala Seal wine is slightly fresher now and certainly the results have been more consistent than for the wine under cork.
He wrote: “I had a bottle at harvest last year and thought it was showing well and still quite young. In summary, the difference isn’t huge, but overall I probably have a slight preference for the Guala Seal wine.”
By the time he came to bottle his 2005s he’d found a better cork supplier and decided that commercially cork was going to be lot easier than Guala Seal. He said he was considering putting some of his final vintage, 2012, under Ardea Seal and the only issue would be that the ArdeaSeal requires a corker modification - which Ponsot mentions in his talk.
