Diam is the global leader in manufacturing technical corks and known for their product performance of clean and consistent corks with control choices of ageability. Their latest innovation, Mytik Diam 10, was showcase at the Unified Wine and Grape Symposium and Francois Margot, Sales Director, Diam North America explains why it’s a significant innovation for premium sparkling wines.
“Our new Mytik Diam 10 is a sparkling cork made for long aging. Of course, we always guarantee a high level of neutrality with non-detectable levels of compounds like TCA, TBA and other anysoles, and we also guarantee consistency for our whole range of corks,” says Margot. “The innovation is in the mechanical performance and oxygen management that allows us to guarantee aging for 10 years.”
Diam offers technical corks for still wines ranging from Diam 2 to Diam 30 with the number indicating the aging guarantee, but the Mytik range of sparkling wine corks previously only included Mytik Diam 3 and Mytik Diam 5. Margot explains why. “Champagne or Sparkling wine aging is different from still wine, there are different pressures and different behaviors of the wine. We had to do the research to find out exactly how the oxygen penetrates and what the impact is on the wine.”
Cork is used to seal bottles because it is elastic. It’s compressed and inserted into the bottle neck where it rebounds, creating a sealing effect. It’s a great seal, but any material will lose elasticity over time, and eventually it will no longer be tight enough to prevent oxygen from going around rather than through the cork.
“When the cork reaches its fatigue point you lose control of the aging, a lot more oxygen will penetrate the bottle, your free SO2 will drop, and your wine will oxidate pretty quickly. So, to guarantee a length of aging, it’s not enough to guarantee an oxygen transfer rate,” says Margot. “You need to guarantee that the cork is going to stay elastic, you need to guarantee that the oxygen transfer and CO2 losses are going to be constant over time. If your sparkling bottle is going to pop in the next 10 years or more, these need to be stable over that period of time. Mytik Diam 10 provides that guarantee.”
The aging capability of the work varies with its elasticity, but Diam also offers different levels of oxygen ingress within the range that the winemakers can choose from depending on their wine aging goals.
To understand how the Mytik Diam 10 would perform over time and guarantee its aging capabilities, Diam used accelerated aging tests. “To see how it evolves and forecast when its elasticity would break down, we’ve tried a lot of things, but temperatures is a key factor to aging of the cork,” says Margot.
Alongside their continuous research into product innovation, Diam is also setting goals for sustainability and reducing their carbon footprint. Diam has committed to a 15% reduction in its greenhouse gas emission by 2025.
“Diam has been working on sustainability for more than 10 years now, so we have a good depth in our reports, and can show the evolution of how we reduce our carbon impacts,” says Margot.
Diam is dedicated to reducing its carbon footprint in all its business activities by reducing its energy consumption, recycling cork by-products and waste, and developing new environmentally friendly products and processes. They will achieve their target through an ambitious reduction of 55% of greenhouse gas emissions in energy and direct emissions while also controlling emissions of materials and freight.
Cork oak forests act as carbon sinks capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide. According to climate experts, this carbon sequestration is estimated to be as much as 10 to 15 tons of CO2 per ton of harvested cork. Diam works with forest professionals in France to manage and maintain the regeneration of cork oak forests to help preserve the environment. Most recently they joined forces with the Sud Provence Alpes Cote d’Azur Region and ASL Suberaie Varoise to plant 3,252 cork oaks in the Var Region of Provence.
G3 Enterprises is the exclusive distributor for Diam in North America, to learn more about Diam and Mytik Diam 10 contact G3, www.g3enterprises.com/contact.
