Reducing Wine Faults Can Open the Door to Quality Improvements in the Chinese Wine Industry

Nomacorc: “Alternative Wine Closures Can Play an Important Role in Reducing or Eliminating Wine Faults Such as Oxidation and TCA.”

 

BEIJING (May 25, 2011) – At a wine forum and tasting event here entitled “Opening the Door to Wine Quality Improvement in China,” local and international wine experts discussed steps the Chinese wine industry could take improve the quality of its vintages, including reducing wine faults. Held in conjunction with the Top Wine China 2011 trade show, the forum was organized by Wine in China and sponsored by Nomacorc, the world’s leading producer of alternative wine closures. The event highlighted the importance of reducing wine faults in the Chinese wine industry and the critical role that alternative wine closures can play in that effort.

 

Leading the forum discussion, held in conjunction with the Top Wine China 2011 trade show, were Nagib Nasr, Nomacorc’s Vice President, Global Operations & Business Development, Mark Coleman, Nomacorc’s Area Sales Manager, No. America & Asia Pacific, Mr. Liang Xuejun, General Manager and Oenologist, Dragon Seal, and Professor You Yi Lin, Wine Technology Development Center, China Agriculture University. The event was attended by leading wine companies, wine experts, industry opinion-leaders, importers and distributors.

 

“As wine manufacturers in China are placing increased attention to improving wine quality, they are naturally looking to how wine closures impact wine quality, especially in terms of oxygen management and cork taint, or TCA,” said Nomacorc’s Nagib Nasr. “Nomacorc wine closures have played an important role with leading wineries around the globe in reducing or eliminating wine faults such as oxidation and TCA, and reducing these wine faults could go a long way to help the Chinese wine industry raise the quality bar and better compete in the international marketplace.”

 

Nomacorc’s global research programs have revealed that the management of oxygen throughout the winemaking process is crucial to achieving optimal wine aroma, flavor, structure and color and that the closure directly affects the chemical and sensory development of wine.

 

Professor You Yi Lin, Wine Technology Development Center, China Agriculture University, sees a clearly emerging consumer-driven trend towards better wine quality in the Chinese wine industry: “With the Chinese wine industry’s rapid development, quality has often been sacrificed. And due to the lack of sophistication of Chinese wine drinkers, there has been little incentive for domestic wine producers to refine the quality of their wine. But that is changing rapidly: Chinese wine lovers are becoming more skillful at recognizing what good wine is and they are demanding local wines of higher quality, free from wine faults. I firmly believe that whenever a Chinese consumer tastes side-by-side a good wine and a wine with wine faults, they could always recognize what a good wine is.”

 

Mr. Liang Xuejun, Chief Engineer and Oenologist, Dragon Seal, described how Dragon Seal is working to produce high quality wines for its customers:”We are striving to maintain and improve quality on all fronts, and this includes leveraging the winemaking expertise of our French winemaker, Mr. Jérôme Sabaté, and paying attention to things such as oxygen management and preventing TCA. As Nomacorc has become a trusted partner of many French wineries, Mr. Sabaté was very keen to use this alternative closure with many of our wines at Dragon Seal. We have been customers of Dragon Seal for three years and both Mr. Sabaté and I appreciate the high quality and reliability of Nomacorc closures. They help reduce wine faults and preserve the original character of the wine after bottling, allowing consumers to experience the wine just like the winemaker intended. And, of course, as TCA only appears in natural cork, this problem is eliminated by using Nomacorc.”

 

Nomacorc’s Coleman led a wine tasting that gave the event participants a sensory experience of two common wine faults, cork taint and oxidation. “Many people don’t realize it, but worldwide, one million bottles of wine a day go bad because of TCA,” he said. “Most consumers, though they can not identify a wine as having ‘cork taint,’ will not have a good experience with that wine and will not buy it again.”

 

Nomacorc has been working with wineries in China to bring them the latest research on oxygen management. Oxygen management is a significant factor influencing wine development and having too much oxygen in wine is a common wine fault in China. “Clearly, for wineries looking to improve their quality, there is need for greater understanding of oxygen management,” added Nomacorc’s Coleman. “After bottling, the OTR rate of wine closures heavily influences a wine’s development. Nomacorc closures offer highly consistent OTR, which helps to preserve the wine’s natural character and can increase product shelf life. In addition, Chinese consumers—like consumers in the U.S. and Europe—love the traditional look and feel of Nomacorc closures, their ease of extraction, plus the fact that they will not break when opening the wine bottle.”

 

In early 2011 Nomacorc debuted its newest high-performance closure, the Select 500. Part of Nomacorc’s innovative Select Series product range, the Select 500 helps Chinese winemakers create wine with optimal aroma, flavor, structure and color. Featuring a natural, cork-like look and feel, the Select 500 has a more flexible and elastic skin designed to work well with Chinese wine bottling equipment. Like all Nomacorc Select Series products, the Select 500 is backed by the Nomacorc Winemaker Promise, a commitment to consistent oxygen control, total protection from cork taint and the highest degree of quality assurance.

 

Nomacorc is a worldwide leader in wine closures and the 文章来源中国酒业新闻网No. 1 closure brand for still wines in many countries including France, Germany and the United States. Dedicated to technological innovation, Nomacorc manufactures its portfolio of products using a patented co-extrusion process. As a result, Nomacorc closures provide consistent, predictable oxygen management and protect against off-flavors due to oxidation, reduction or cork taint. Nomacorc’s 100 percent recyclable products are available through a vast network of distributors and sales agents on six continents. With 500 employees worldwide and state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in the United States, Belgium, Austria and China, Nomacorc produces more than 2 billion closures annually. Working with renowned wine research institutes worldwide, the company leads the wine closure industry in fundamental and applied research into oxygen management in wine. For more information, visit www.nomacorc.com.cn.