The cork dilemma all began at the end of the 1990s when the production of wine in the world blossomed in the “New World” countries of the US, Chile, Argentina, and Australia among others.
The demand for natural cork was high and the supply couldn’t meet the demand, likewise, many of the new wineries needed more economical cork solutions to enter into the market at affordable prices, this led to an expanded use of micro-agglomerated corks (natural cork glued together) and technical corks (not 100% natural cork).
You all know what happened next, around 10% of all bottles of wine were “corked” or tainted with cork smells. Many solutions have appeared on the market as alternatives to natural cork: screw caps, synthetic corks, Vinolok, and Nomacorc.
I had the privilege to meet the Nomacorc team at the annual Enomaq tradeshow in Zaragoza. They presented me with a Sommelier Challenge (kind of like the Pepsi Challenge), a tasting of the same white wine sealed with different models of Nomacorc with different amounts of “Nano-oxygenation”.