Cornelissen Nomacorc

L

Levi Dalton

Levi Dalton
It is surprising to me that Frank Cornelissen, who seems to take such a hands off, nature decides, devil may care stance in so many instances regarding his wines, would use a fake cork. But that is what I found to be the case tonight when I pulled the top off a Munjebel 5 Rosso.

Nomacorc Premium.

The wine was delicious, btw. Much more harmonious than the showing of the same wine on Amphora night. Different routes to the country for the bottles involved most likely being the cause.
 
Yeah, I had the same thought. I'm disillusioned.

Aren't bottles with plastic more susceptible to VA, and other bummers?
 
Of course it makes perfect sense, when one makes fabulously unstable wines, to use a closure that absolutely guarantees an escalation of that instability.

*sigh*
 
I have a vague impression that Nomacork is the most porous of them all.

I suppose it saves him from the dread fate of reduction.
 
Surely the hard'n'colorful plugs let in the most oxygen, no? I think I remember the inventor of the extruded synthetic technology telling me they were adjustable to spec, but I may have been on my third bottle of Ogier at the time, so you could be right.

Reduction? What could reduce in these wines? (No, no, please don't speculate. I'd rather not know.)
 
By chance, both Munjebel 4 Bianco and Munjebel 4 Rosso came my way this evening. Both were under regular, natural, old fashioned cork. Rather stubby ones, actually.

So 5 (2008) seems to have been the synthetic change year.

Also to note, as an aside: the oak on the Passopisciaro "Passopisciaro" Rosso 2007 has integrated. I wouldn't have thought it possible at this stage in the game, but numerous bottles opened have demonstrated that this is the case.
 
I opened a Munjebel 5 rosso last night.

This is no hard and colorful plug, this Nomacork. It's a surprisingly good fake. Very corklike.
IIRC the Contadino 5 has something more like a hard colorful plug. It's not the same as this.
Not the real thing but not a typical synthetic either.

Anyway, a touch of VA upon opening makes this edgy and nervy to start but after 20 minutes that goes and Wow. Very reminiscent of a fine Beaune Premier cru like Teurons or a Volnay. This has elements of both young and old Burgundy at the same time. Deep dark cherry and black earth tones keep going deeper and darker and earthier. This was great stuff once the VA vanished, not bizarre or idiosyncratic, just really good. The tannins are pretty fine and after 3 hours or so get slightly furry but that's nothing to complain about in such a young wine.

This has a lot less of the fine lees sediment than the Contadinos do, but I still recommend pouring it off
the sediment that is there. I'm REALLY glad to have some more of these but what the aging potential is
I can't say because of that cork.

On monday I opened a Fourrier 01 Combes au Moines 1cru. It had one of the "FS" corks, which was
kinda dry, but the seal still was good and the wine was fine.
 
originally posted by Brzme:
Give me the trick. I know a bunch of growers (me included) who will appreciate to make their VA vanish...
Click to expand...

Hey, it was slight, it was there and then it went away, that was my impression, it is, after all, "volatile".

I suggest swirling the decanter vigorously or foudre as the case may be...
 
I finally got around to emailing FC to inquire about the nomacorcs. Here is the response:

Dear Ned,
After 9 (only; I know) years of working with corks, and being a fan of
natural cork, I have started to notice that natural cork isn't the best
closure of a bottle. Why?

First of all, I see that not all bottles close perfectly, compared to the
synthetic corks I am using now on Contadino and MunJebel.
As we press the corks into the bottle with a manual leverage and not
mechanical, I, we who "cork" bottles, literally feel that there is an
enormous difference in consistency of natural cork when compressing the
material before pressing it into the bottle.

Natural cork suppliers continue to spread the word of the fine material
natural cork is. And they are right up to some point.
What these companies leave out is that, in order to find GOOD, CONSISTETLY
ELASTIC cork, one has to select thoroughly and this is becomming very
difficult as it requires skilled personel, it is very cost intensive and
request for quality cork is higher than the offerings... And so the
selecting is not done anymore, except for some small batches of super
selected corks of a length of 50mm and longer. But these have a prohibitive
price level which cannot be used for base or medium range wines (we are
talking 1,30- to 1,50- euro per each cork!!!).

And so, I have become rightously so very dissapointed with natural cork
quality as I simply want a good closure!
If I could, I would have wanted to use screwcaps, but here I have a problem
with consistent supply as this is a type of closure/bottle that doesn't have
request in Italy... a mentality issue over here.

I have searched and chosen for my base and medium range of wines for a super
quality of synthetic closure, which I found after some years of testing (I
have been testing before applying these in my production) in Nomacork
Premium. On top of this, the "premium" quality is guaranteed 5 years of
perfect closure. And I believe this as tasting the wines, they have more
consistency than natural corks.
But beware: not all plastic is "fantastic"! Just like natural cork has
quality differences, also plastics have.

As for Magma, I am still using the natural super-quality corks, paying the
crazy prices as here I find the consistent quality of material density,
specific weight and elasticity required to close perfectly the bottle. On
top of that, these corks are sterilized in some "nuclear-scientific" lab in
the city of Bergamo before being shipped to me...
And still we deselect on 500 of these corks some 10-15 pieces out which we
feel are not OK. Still 2,5% of flaw at this price level!
And when it come to guarantees, the supplier of these corks doesn't even
give this for the super quality corks I am buying for Magma...

Hope this gives you a good answer in this complex bottle-closure issue.

Happy end of the year!
Frank
 
originally posted by Ned Hoey:
I opened a Munjebel 5 rosso last night.

This is no hard and colorful plug, this Nomacork. It's a surprisingly good fake. Very corklike.
IIRC the Contadino 5 has something more like a hard colorful plug. It's not the same as this.
Not the real thing but not a typical synthetic either.

Anyway, a touch of VA upon opening makes this edgy and nervy to start but after 20 minutes that goes and Wow. Very reminiscent of a fine Beaune Premier cru like Teurons or a Volnay. This has elements of both young and old Burgundy at the same time. Deep dark cherry and black earth tones keep going deeper and darker and earthier. This was great stuff once the VA vanished, not bizarre or idiosyncratic, just really good. The tannins are pretty fine and after 3 hours or so get slightly furry but that's nothing to complain about in such a young wine.

This has a lot less of the fine lees sediment than the Contadinos do, but I still recommend pouring it off
the sediment that is there. I'm REALLY glad to have some more of these but what the aging potential is
I can't say because of that cork.

On monday I opened a Fourrier 01 Combes au Moines 1cru. It had one of the "FS" corks, which was
kinda dry, but the seal still was good and the wine was fine.
Click to expand...
 
originally posted by Ned Hoey:
I finally got around to emailing FC to inquire about the nomacorcs. Here is the response:

Dear Ned,
After 9 (only; I know) years of working with corks, and being a fan of
natural cork, I have started to notice that natural cork isn't the best
closure of a bottle. Why?

First of all, I see that not all bottles close perfectly, compared to the
synthetic corks I am using now on Contadino and MunJebel.
As we press the corks into the bottle with a manual leverage and not
mechanical, I, we who "cork" bottles, literally feel that there is an
enormous difference in consistency of natural cork when compressing the
material before pressing it into the bottle.

Natural cork suppliers continue to spread the word of the fine material
natural cork is. And they are right up to some point.
What these companies leave out is that, in order to find GOOD, CONSISTETLY
ELASTIC cork, one has to select thoroughly and this is becomming very
difficult as it requires skilled personel, it is very cost intensive and
request for quality cork is higher than the offerings... And so the
selecting is not done anymore, except for some small batches of super
selected corks of a length of 50mm and longer. But these have a prohibitive
price level which cannot be used for base or medium range wines (we are
talking 1,30- to 1,50- euro per each cork!!!).

And so, I have become rightously so very dissapointed with natural cork
quality as I simply want a good closure!
If I could, I would have wanted to use screwcaps, but here I have a problem
with consistent supply as this is a type of closure/bottle that doesn't have
request in Italy... a mentality issue over here.

I have searched and chosen for my base and medium range of wines for a super
quality of synthetic closure, which I found after some years of testing (I
have been testing before applying these in my production) in Nomacork
Premium. On top of this, the "premium" quality is guaranteed 5 years of
perfect closure. And I believe this as tasting the wines, they have more
consistency than natural corks.
But beware: not all plastic is "fantastic"! Just like natural cork has
quality differences, also plastics have.

As for Magma, I am still using the natural super-quality corks, paying the
crazy prices as here I find the consistent quality of material density,
specific weight and elasticity required to close perfectly the bottle. On
top of that, these corks are sterilized in some "nuclear-scientific" lab in
the city of Bergamo before being shipped to me...
And still we deselect on 500 of these corks some 10-15 pieces out which we
feel are not OK. Still 2,5% of flaw at this price level!
And when it come to guarantees, the supplier of these corks doesn't even
give this for the super quality corks I am buying for Magma...

Hope this gives you a good answer in this complex bottle-closure issue.

Happy end of the year!
Frank
Click to expand...

I appreciate the complexity of his analysis, but I sure wish everyone using the plastique would just sit down and actually drink some of their slightly older plastic corked wine and see if they think it is working out. It isn't. Enough of the analysis, they're getting a 100% failure rate after 2-3 years.

Plastique is the Kindle of corks. A pox on this shite!
 
Vigorous swirling would not be my approach with Franks wines they bloom almost perfectly in the glass,and fast in my experience.The va while I admit there is not going any where,as Eric said but the bouquet certainly becomes more pronounced than any of the"volatile"notes.Nerello in its truest form seems to have a good similarity to syrah and in general I dont decant those much either. I've had some of the same things occur with Puzelat's wines but the only decanter worthy bits where all Cot,the gas certainly subsides more quickly with movement but again I think it was not the way to go with the more subtle varietals when sans soufre at least.
 
originally posted by BJ:
I appreciate the complexity of his analysis, but I sure wish everyone using the plastique would just sit down and actually drink some of their slightly older plastic corked wine and see if they think it is working out. It isn't. Enough of the analysis, they're getting a 100% failure rate after 2-3 years.

Plastique is the Kindle of corks. A pox on this shite!
Click to expand...

Are you familiar with the Nomacorc Premium? It's not at all like the typical hard plastic plugs.

originally posted by Dagan
Dont get rough
Vigorous swirling would not be my approach with Franks wines they bloom almost perfectly in the glass,and fast in my experience.The va while I admit there is not going any where,as Eric said but the bouquet certainly becomes more pronounced than any of the"volatile"notes.Nerello in its truest form seems to have a good similarity to syrah and in general I dont decant those much either. I've had some of the same things occur with Puzelat's wines but the only decanter worthy bits where all Cot,the gas certainly subsides more quickly with movement but again I think it was not the way to go with the more subtle varietals when sans soufre at least.
Click to expand...

I need to correct a couple things in that older post. It was Munjebel 4 Rosso not 5, and the Contadino 5 has the same Nomacorc Premium as the Munjebel.

I'll restate the volatile comments in this way. The Contadino 5 showed the most volatility I've yet experienced from any of Frank's wines I've tried so far, it either diminished, or was masked by the bouquet or my perception acclimated to it in such a way that it receded to the distant background and it didn't mar the experience. The Munjebel had much less volatility.

I don't "decant", I pour the wine off it's sediment. Easily conflated I suppose. I find it really improves the experience. Especially with the Contadino. As for comparisons to french grapes, exactly whether northern Rhone syrah or certain styles of burgundy are more similar to Nerello isn't of great importance to me, as I can see valid arguments for either one. I do find that in the case of a sound wine not showing any reduction or other flaws, wines of any of these grapes are always better after 30-45 mins.
of being open.
 
Drinking from an open bottle of Cornelissen is like skipping stones on a lake. You know at some point the stone will sink under the waters and be gone. It is a matter of how much shimmer, how many pools, flicker and play, of how much beauty there will be before it is gone. And that isn't measured by the amount of liquid.
 
originally posted by Levi Dalton:
Drinking from an open bottle of Cornelissen is like skipping stones on a lake. You know at some point the stone will sink under the waters and be gone. It is a matter of how much shimmer, how many pools, flicker and play, of how much beauty there will be before it is gone. And that isn't measured by the amount of liquid.
Click to expand...

Beautifully said.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top