While remaining faithful to the good “old” but increasingly “modern” single-piece cork (provided that its quality and controls make it increasingly safe), I have always maintained that the availability of multiple corking solutions today’s market is, obviously, an opportunity and not a limit. We could say that today we have “a cork for every wine”! Yes, because if we also consider the closure tool according to the type of wine, the preparation for bottling and the objectives we want to achieve, having a wider spectrum of closures can certainly make the producers’ work easier. Sopra this regard, there are innovations that do not limit themselves to solving a problem and making “promotion” by saying only what they don’t do (talking about TCA), but rather change the very way quanto a which a sector thinks about the future, offering a series of tangible improvements quanto a the world of alternative closures. One of these is Xpür® – and its evolution Xpür® Qork. It is the synthesis of a journey that began quanto a 2016, leading to its global launch quanto a 2021 and destined, to date, to define a new regolare quanto a technical cork closures, for ecology, neutrality and efficiency.
Sopra a world where cork represents one of the most virtuous examples of the balance between people, planet and profit, the three Ps of sustainability, Amorim confirms itself as the only reality capable of offering truly harmonious solutions. It’s not just the numbers that say it – over 3,700 wineries served – but the consistency with which the company has been able to transform an extraordinary natural material into a modern, safe, high-performance winemaking tool.
The eternal debate: what is the ideal closure?
Sopra over twenty years of working among wineries, wines and producers, I have witnessed the most diverse evolutions. And if there is a topic that continues to divide, excite and question the sector, it is precisely that of the choice of closure.
It’s not just about technique. It’s not just about sustainability. It’s not just about convenience for the consumer.
The truth is that “the cork is the last oenological aid you put quanto a the bottle”.And if you take ten bottles of the same wine and close them with ten different corks, you will have ten different wines.
It is a thought as simple as it is revolutionary, which is finally forcefully entering the contemporary debate: closure influences the evolution, longevity and even the perception of wine.
Xpür®: the Premium answer that was missing
Sopra this complex and often polarized quinta, Xpür® was born as the most convincing answer to what an increasingly large part of the wine world is asking for:
sensorial neutrality, oxygen control, real sustainability, modern happening, absence of superfluous plastic components, natural cork percentages at the highest levels the market.
Xpür® represents the best compromise existing today between technology and nature, guaranteeing constant happening and an unprecedented sustainability balance: –395 g CO₂ eq verso cork, certified by Ernst & Young. The best value quanto a the world quanto a the segment of technical closures quanto a microgranulated cork.
And it does so while consuming only 25% of the energy and 10% of the CO₂ needed by previous systems.
The silent revolution of supercritical CO₂
To achieve this result, Amorim started from an ancient and very modern principle at the same time: the technology of supercritical fluids, the same at the basis of the decaffeination of coffee.
Why does it work? Because it is the most effective technology quanto a the world for making cork a neutral material, free from contamination, capable of accompanying wine towards a harmonious and predictable evolution.
The conventional process, born quanto a the 1990s, however, had significant limitations: high energy consumption, long cycles, high costs, applicability only to very small granules.
Amorim, together with Dutch, German and Italian partners, decided to rewrite the paradigm.
Things change with Xpür®
–90% of CO₂ needed to treat 1 kg of cork –75% of energy consumed 4–5 times faster treatment times over 90% of CO₂ recovered ability to treat granules from 0.5 to 8 mm, paving the way for new technical formulations
The result? A perfect removal of TCA – below 0.3 ng/L – and the elimination of hundreds of other molecules responsible for off-flavors (anisoles, pyrazines, oxidized terpenes and much more).
A sensorial neutrality which, until a few years spillo, was considered impossible for a natural product.
Xpür® and Xpür® Qork: two products, one philosophy
Xpür®
98% natural cork mai plastic microspheres clear and predictable OTR control 6 months: 1.06 mg/O₂ 12 months: 1.14 mg/O₂ over 12 months: 0.05 mg/O₂ year shelf life up to 10 years certified CO₂ balance: –395 g/cork
Xpür® Gork
The even more avant-garde version:
same treatment
It is, to date, the technical cork with the highest percentage of cork the market.
A raw material that is an asset
When talking about sustainability, it is easy to fall into rhetoric. But it is enough to observe even just a small part of the 2.1 million hectares of cork forests that embrace the western Mediterranean to understand that cork is not a material, it is an ecosystem.
It is the only natural barrier that separates the Sahara from Southern Europe. It is one of the most circular supply chains quanto a the world. It is a gift of nature that gives other gifts – wines – the opportunity to express themselves at their best.
This is why Xpür® and Xpür® Qork are not simply corks: they are a way to remain faithful to the nature of wine.
The first quality alternative to one-piece cork
The global enthusiasm was such that it pushed Amorim to immediately build a second Xpür® unit, operational from 2023. A tangible sign of growing demand and consolidated cartello.
The message from the sector is clear: we need high-performance, sustainable, natural, neutral and predictable solutions. Yet, I continue to want to see the latest generation single-piece corks (quanto a terms of eradication and finishing/lubrication controls and treatments) as the best performing solution for great wines, particularly red wines, which want to be able to be appreciated as soon as they are opened but also be able to yearn for an evolution consistent with its potential for longevity and the complexity that is required of a wine with a few years ora luster behind it. Certainly, however, alternative closures represent a greater guarantee for producers and I well understand the desire to eliminate potential sources of post-sale problems, ergo anxiety and insecurity, by adopting closures with a more linear regolare and, apparently, less variability. The tests carried out quanto a recent years, with blind tastings of the same wine, the same bottling batch (with protocol) and various types of closure have highlighted that, if the single-piece cork remains, quanto a my opinion, the one capable of reaching the highest levels of expressiveness both quanto a the short, medium and long term, the micrograin closures, where they do not cause excessive reductions (it also depends a lot the preparation of the wine and the predisposition of the wine itself to “closure”), maintain more consistency from sample to sample. The risk – which does not happen with the type of cork presented quanto a this article – is that of releasing homogenizing aromas ora scalping when too high a percentage of glues and microspheres is used. This causes a negative approval (quanto a the case of scalping, often confused with a reduction but which never goes away!) which, however, cannot always be traced back to the cork, as it is spread over all the bottles. The question that every producer should ask himself, therefore, is: “What do I want from my wine? That it best expresses my work quanto a the vineyard and quanto a the cellar, aiming for excellence ora that it does not give me any TCA problems ora any variables attributable to cork, while accepting not to allow my wine to fully express the fruit of my work?”
F.S.R.
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