Wine absorption by cork stoppers

J.R González-Adrados,M.J Cáceres-Esteban,M.C García-Vallejo,J.L García De Ceca,F González-Hernández

doi:10.5424/sjar/2008064-356

J.R González-Adrados, M.J Cáceres-Esteban + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.5424/sjar/2008064-356

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Abstract

To evaluate the magnitude of wine absorption by cork under conditions as close to reality as possible and its evolution in time, ready-to-use natural cork stoppers and "1+1" cork stoppers were used to close bottles filled with red wine. Stoppers were removed after 3, 6, 12 and 24 months of contact to determine absorption of liquid and liquid progression along the lateral surface of the cork stopper.Variation of absorption with contact time was studied by adjusting the model Absorption = a square root of t(R2 : 82.19 - 93.63%). A scheme of the evolution of wine absorption with time is proposed, differentiating liquid flow along cork-glass interface, diffusion in cell walls and liquid flow through the cell lumens. In conditions of use, a value of 4.48 x 10E-13 square m/s was obtained for non-radial diffusion coefficient (D).

Highlights

Cork is used in enology due to the unique physicalmechanical and chemical properties of the material including impermeability and mechanical behavior
From a mechanical point of view, absorption has opposing effects: on the one hand, it increases the volume of the cork stopper, raising pressure on the neck of the bottle; on the other hand, increased moisture content diminishes compression stress against the glass, an effect which adds to that of the relaxation phenomena characteristic of viscoelastic materials (Fortes et al, 2004)
The main direction of progression of liquid is perpendicular to the pores in natural cork stoppers, whereas it is parallel to the pores in natural cork discs of “1+1” stoppers

Summary

Introduction

Cork is used in enology due to the unique physicalmechanical and chemical properties of the material including impermeability and mechanical behavior. The value of this coefficient for water absorption by cork at room temperature is extremely low (about 10-11-10-12 m2 s-1) (Rosa and Fortes, 1993) and is affected by many factors, such as the relative position of the cork tissue with respect to the direction of progression of liquid, temperature (Skurray et al, 2000a), and moisture content (Siau, 1984).

Results

Conclusion