Melbourne-based wine closure company ProCork is buoyed by some recent results that suggest its membrane-like product can reduce the transmission of the most common kind of cork taint, TCA (2,4,6-Trichloroanisole) from corks to wine by between 90-100%. The tests involved contaminating corks with TCA before coating them with ProCork’s membrane treatment. These corks were then used to seal bottles of wine, which were tested for taint over a period between 7.5 to 20 months after corking. After 20 months, the average level of TCA in the bottles with treated corks remained below 1 ng/l, which ProCork claims is below trace quantities. This compares to a level of 13.3 ng/l from technical (agglomerate) corks and 10.8 ng/l for natural corks without the ProCork membrane. ProCork also claims that its membrane prevented any detectable level of taint reaching the wine from half of the samples tested using contaminated corks.
