Supercap ltd has been constantly involved with zeal and eagerness to optimise and improve its production tecnologies making in-depth studies of the product, and searching for the palpable and evident proves to illustrate beneficial effects of the synthetic stopper on the wine.
To achieve this goal Supercap ltd in collaboration with the winery Marchesi de’ Frescobaldi carried out a test of comparison and assessment of sensory properties of:
_ Albizzia white wine vintage 2000;
_ Remole red wine vintage 2000;
sealed with natural cork supplied by the Winery, and Supercap® synthetic closure.
The analysis has been conducted on both wines stored at Enology Research Institute of Asti at ambient temperature and under cellar temperature conditions 15°C from two weeks post-bottling and afterwards up to 3, 6 and 12 months.
Below are provided the main conclusions put in evidence by comparative testing of both samples:
• Under conditions of conventional bottling the absence of constancy in wine quality was noticed. In course of evaluation of sensory properties a certain number of bottles sealed with natural cork displayed evident defects, incidence of “corked” smell, mould, etc that have been removed. (P. 3)
• As far as the test of pleasantness measurement is concerned, under cellar temperature conditions no significant difference was noticed; the natural cork incubated at ambient temperature and stored lying down was found to be significantly less pleasant than the other three, the synthetic stopper lying down was more pleasant than natural cork, and the synthetic stopper in the upright position was more pleasant than the natural cork in the inverted orientation. The resulting pleasantness data confirm the differences displayed in duo-trio testings: in fact it seems that the wine sealed with the natural cork and stored lying down proves to be distinguishable and less pleasant related to the others. (P. 8)
• The assessment of some chemical and physical variables confirmed that “synthetic stoppers seem to determine a major decrease of anidride SO2 free and total. That has no effects on oxidation level, while it doesn’t seem that wines sealed with synthetic stopper to be more oxidated than the others, on the contrary, if we keep a track of colouring intensity after 12 months they have a trend to exhibit slightly superior to the natural cork variables under both storage conditions. (P. 14)
•The red wines sealed with natural cork and stored in upright position or laying down differ from the others and can be recognized at a certain phase of wine evaluation that becomes evident first in wines at ambient temperature and afterwards in those stored in the winery, but at pleasantness level not always a preference for one or another product can be expressed. In fact, as we have already observed in a more visible way in white wines, the natural cork interacts with the wine altering its sensory characteristics, and that allows its recognition in case of comparison by descriminatory tests. The problem of a natural cork is likely to be the lack of constant behaviour in all the botles and, certainly, defects of different nature. (P.16)
The test, besides providing us with these and other elements to take into account will go on with further controls up to 18 and 24 months.
“Supercap ltd is greatly satisfied with what was demonstrated. Our company will continue offering a highly technological synthetic stopper which potentiality will be converted to guarantees for consumers as well as for the winery.”
Mirco Bannini - Managing Director of Supercap ltd
