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Oxygen, closures, and trade-offs
A study and industry research focus on how different closures change oxygen needs during wine aging, with Portail Réussir saying that for sulfite-free wine the consequences of closure choice for quality evolution are “even more crucial.”
“Most people perceive a cork in a bottle of wine as a simple plug meant to keep the liquid in and the outside world out”
Christophe Loisel, R&D Director at Diam Bouchage, said the closure must meet three objectives: “to prevent leakage, not to sensorily affect the wine, and to provide a controlled amount of oxygen.”
Portail Réussir explains that cork permeability depends on OIR (Oxygen Initial Release) and OTR (Oxygen Transfer Rate), and says that apart from natural corks with “highly variable permeabilities,” they should be avoided if winemakers want “to perfectly control the preservation of this type of wine.”
The article also ties closure permeability to wine type, noting that red wines are “the most resistant to oxidation due to their richness in polyphenols,” while it warns that the most impermeable closures showed “notes of reduction.”
Diam’s products and oxygen control
Diam Bouchage’s innovations are presented as a shift from closure taint concerns toward oxygen management, with Intravino stating that Diam has oriented itself toward “the heart of modern enology: oxygen control.”
Intravino says Diam’s approach lets customers choose permeabilities for different aging goals, quoting Dimitri Tixador: “For wines with a more reductive profile, our customers have asked us for a cork with a greater supply of O2.”
Ecomnews describes LiOX by Diam for sparkling wines, saying it “reduces oxygen input at bottling by half” by acting on Oxygen Initial Release (OIR) during the first three months after bottling.
Ecomnews also quotes Eric Feunteun, CEO of Diam Bouchage, saying “Collection by Diam embodies true French excellence,” while describing the Collection cork as a micro-agglomerated stopper designed for organoleptic safety via the Diamant® process.
Tracking oxygen through cork
Ars Technica reports that a team of French scientists published in Science Advances demonstrated that a cork can regulate oxygen transfer into and out of a wine bottle, acting “almost as another ingredient.”
“In the world of wine, almost everyone knows it”
The same Ars Technica account quotes Thomas Karbowiak, a chemist at the University of Burgundy and senior author of the study, saying “Oxygen diffusion through cork stoppers is one of these parameters.”
Ars Technica explains that researchers faced a measurement problem in a standard 750 ml wine bottle, where the volume of liquid and glass thickness make it difficult “to accurately isolate, monitor, and measure real-time oxygen kinetics.”
To address that, Ars Technica says the team used “the mini-bottle experiment,” with Julie Chanut of the University of Burgundy describing “The real bottle of wine is a complex system. We wanted something simpler and easier to understand.”
