Hottest wine corks and polymer synthetic corks

Wine corks and polymer synthetic corks

at present, wine corks can be mainly divided into natural corks, polymer corks (glued corks), composite corks (1 + 1 corks), and polymer synthetic corks widely used in Europe and the United States

1. Characteristics and defects of natural plug, polymer plug and composite plug:

Natural plug, polymer plug and composite plug can be collectively referred to as cork. The cork made of cork is cork layer composed of layers of cells formed in the bark of Quercus variabilis during the growth process, and the bark of Quercus variabilis is stripped off when it reaches a certain age and thickness. Cork plug is a plug made of one or several pieces of prepared cork, or cork particles polymerized and processed, which is used to block bottles or other containers. 1.1 natural cork: a cork made of more than two corks

the number of cork cell stacking layers, density and defects determine the tightness of the natural plug. For natural plugs with the same volume, the more layers of cells, the denser, the fewer defects, and the better the sealing. There are strict quality grades of natural corks. Different grades of natural corks have different effects on wine. Top natural corks can ensure that wine can be stored for many years, but their price in the United States is about $3-4 per cork, which is unbearable for general wine packaging

low grade natural stopper can only maintain the quality of wine for a few years. As natural corks are natural products, even the same batch of natural corks from the same supplier have slight differences in quality and lack of uniformity, which will inevitably lead to differences in the quality of the same batch of wine. When senior wine tasters taste the same batch of wine, they often have different evaluation results, which is why

in the investigation of two well-known wine enterprises in China, there are still individual wine leakage phenomena in the natural stopper currently used. Therefore, it is not easy to choose a batch of natural stoppers with high quality and unified specifications when choosing the use of bottle stoppers for bottled wine

1.2. Polymer stopper: cork particles are mixed with binder and pressed into plates, rods or monomer columns at a certain temperature and pressure, and then processed into bottle stopper

the poor sealing of the polymer plug is due to the gap between the cork particles and the binder, which is easy to leak wine when inverted; The wine will wither and shrink after being put in the bottle for a long time. Excessive oxygen exchange can accelerate the wine. It has the advantages of high efficiency, energy saving and high cost performance. Oxidation, aging and deterioration. If the polymer plug wants to achieve the sealing property of the natural plug, it will become quite hard. Even if it can be put into the bottle, it is difficult to pull it out of the bottle. Therefore, the density of the polymer plug is usually controlled at 260-380kg/m3

if the wine body contacts with the cork, especially in summer, the cork is very easy to mildew, which greatly affects the wine quality

the process of wine production, storage, sales and consumption in China often takes more than one year. If stored vertically for a long time, the oxygen through the polymerization plug will increase, which will accelerate the oxidation and deterioration of wine; Therefore, it must be inverted, which will cause wine leakage

wine related enterprises have repeatedly invited some domestic wine experts to taste the wine stored for one year, two years, and more than two years sealed with polymer plugs. The result is that the aroma of the wine generally decreases, and the taste changes. The longer the storage period, the more serious the oxidation and aging of the wine

the experimental report of rhodanien Institute in Germany concluded that the wine produced by the wine producer will be drunk within 1 month after bottling, otherwise the use of micro particle polymer plugs is not recommended

therefore, wine sealed with a polymer plug is not suitable for inversion or lying down, but only suitable for short-term storage from import to production. And because there is binder in the polymer plug, although the withering agent meets the food requirements, the long-term contact between the binder and the liquor will affect the flavor and transparency of the liquor, which is not suitable for long-term storage

in China, consumers do not understand the odor, mildew, fracture, crushing, slag dropping, wine leakage and the harm to random oxidation of wine caused by the polymer plug used in wine, which is also an important reason why wine manufacturers are willing to choose low-cost polymer plugs. In China, the consumption of polymer plugs in wine accounts for about 9% of the market consumption. The project will focus on the research of high-performance materials and laser forming technology for 3D printing within the next four years. With the improvement of the taste of wine drinkers, it is only a matter of time to eliminate polymer plugs

polymer stoppers are collectively referred to as garbage stoppers by industry insiders abroad. A producer's low-quality bottle stoppers will affect the interests of all wine producers. In the United States, Australia, New Zealand and some South American wine new world countries, the polymer plugs used in wine have been eliminated for many years. Almost all polymer plugs and accessories produced by foreign wine cork manufacturers are sold to Chinese wine manufacturers. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has banned the sale of wines using polymer plugs in 2005. With the international integration of economy, Chinese wine enterprises should be fully aware of the problem of continuing to use polymer plugs if they want to go abroad

1.3. Composite cork: a cork made of natural cork or polymerized cork with cork discs or other plastics, metals, glasses, ceramics, etc. added at one or both ends

because the patch 1 + 1 plug uses a polymer plug as the plug body, and a piece of cork is bonded to both ends of the polymer plug to form a wood plug, which has the characteristics of natural plug and polymer plug to a certain extent. The cork patches at both ends avoid the direct contact between the polymer and the binder and the liquor. Due to the limited shelf life of the binder in the intermediate polymer and its unstable physical characteristics, with the extension of the wine bottle lying down time, the liquor will slowly contact the polymer through the cork disc, which will also contact the binder, which is difficult to maintain the quality of the wine for a long time, making the liquor turbid or even deteriorated. Some insiders believe that 1 + 1 stopper with good quality can guarantee the storage of wine for 3-4 years, and its price is between natural stopper and polymer stopper

corks used in China are imported products. In the process of import shipping, corks may infect colonies due to the influence of temperature, humidity and environment, so strong oxidants must be used for cleaning. The traditional oxidant is hypochlorite, because chlorine is toxic, and it is easy to produce a substance of TCA (2,4,6-chloroanisole), which has a foul smell, It has a fatal adverse effect on the quality of wine. With the development of modern society, foreign wine industry insiders believe that Quercus variabilis is more or less polluted by pesticides in the growth process, and pesticides are also the factors that cause TCA in cork. Now the use of oxidants is changed to hydrogen peroxide and sulfur dioxide. After cleaning, the residual oxidant on the cork must also be removed. Too much oxidant residue (control standard: <0.1mg/piece) will oxidize the wine quality, and the oxidized white wine will gradually darken, and the fruity aroma and taste will disappear. Oxidized red wine will turn brown or dull, and the fruit fragrance will disappear

a wine packaging laboratory in Yantai collected 119 bottles of wine sealed with different kinds of corks from 24 manufacturers from 1999 to 2004. The observation records have been made since 2003. From the observation results, the standard natural cork did not leak wine, but the short cork (40 * 24mm) had side leakage. There is no wine leakage in patch 1 + 1 plug, but some wine body turbidity exists. The polymer plug has more leakage and a large proportion of turbidity. The experimental observation of three kinds of corks is also basically consistent with their sealing characteristics. In the sensory evaluation experiment, the same bottle of dry white wine was used to soak natural cork, 1 + 1 cork and polymer cork in three covered goblets respectively. Each cup is 100ml, soaked with a cork. After 72 hours, take out the cork and invite experts to taste it. The result is that the liquor soaked in natural cork has no other peculiar smell except a slight cork smell. The liquor soaked in the polymer plug has a heavy dust taste, similar to the taste of rice bran. The liquor soaked with 1 + 1 cork has a slight cork taste and is not unpleasant. Moreover, corks provided by different manufacturers have different tastes after soaking

the business representative office of the Portuguese cork Association in the United States designed a questionnaire with 20 questions. Among the restaurant staff who participated in the survey, 41% said that they would experience one or more alcohol withdrawal events due to cork quality problems every month. Therefore, we come to the conclusion that because wine is a noble, elegant and lively drink, the three types of corks are difficult to meet the requirements of perfect packaging of wine, especially the polymer plug called garbage plug in foreign countries is not suitable for sealing wine. Low quality corks will affect the interests of all wine producers. Failure to completely solve the peculiar smell, mildew, fracture, crushing, slag dropping, wine leakage, random oxidation of wine and TCA pollution caused by wine corks will have a fatal adverse impact on the image, reputation and sustainable development of wine enterprises

2. At present, the natural stopper, polymer stopper and composite stopper used in wine have been recognized by manufacturers and consumers, while the polymer synthetic stopper widely used by wineries in Europe and the United States is little known in China

2.1. Physical properties of polymer synthetic plug:

polymer synthetic plug is composed of its plug core and outer surface

2.1.1. The plug core adopts the world's top mixed extrusion foaming technology, and the full-automatic production process can ensure that each polymer synthetic plug has a highly consistent density, microporous structure and specification, which is very similar to the organizational structure of natural cork. Through microscopic observation, we can see that there are uniform and closely connected micropores, which are almost the same as the structure of natural cork, and have stable oxygen permeability, Through repeated experiments and advanced production technology, the oxygen transmission rate is ensured to be 027mgo2/month, so as to ensure the normal breathing of wine, promote the wine to mature slowly, and make the wine more mellow. This is the key to prevent wine oxidation and ensure wine quality

2.1.2. The outer surface layer of the cork can protect the internal microporous structure of the cork. Due to the flexible surface layer made of polymer materials and processes and excellent rebound, the ideal smooth and moderate corking force can be achieved, which completely avoids the disadvantages of common corks such as fracture, crushing, slag dropping, drying and shrinkage, and also ensures that it will not be damaged during bottling, so as to avoid wine leakage or oxidation. The sealing performance of the surface layer completely prevents air from penetrating between the cork and the neck, and completely prevents wine leakage. The wine bottle can be placed upside down or upright during cellaring

2.1.3. The stable product performance is applicable to all existing filling equipment. There is no waiting for dust in the corking process. The phenomenon of corking has received more and more attention. After corking, the cork has good compression and resilience, and the wine bottle can be placed upside down immediately, which is an effect that any natural cork cannot achieve

2.1.4. The design process of the surface layer achieves the visual effect of natural cork, just like a whole piece of natural wood, and can provide nearly perfect print detail effect, which can play a unique anti-counterfeiting role and advertising platform

3. Chemical properties of polymer synthetic plug:

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