TN: Leclerc and Chezeaux (Feb 12, 2014)

originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
originally posted by Jay Miller:
Iirc most recent studies have shown significant variability in natural cork. Since the new generation of screw caps can control their level of permeability (as opposed to the original ones which were effectively 0) the question became where in the range of natural cork screwcaps should be designed to mimic.
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Jay is correct. According to the screed, Ponsot is far more horrified by the variability in older bottles than he is by cork taint (1 bottle in 1000, he says).

The ingress figure for the Ardea Seal was determined by Ponsot himself tasting lots and lots of older bottles (oh, the pain, the pain), deciding which ones were good, then measuring the dissolved oxygen in them. He found that good bottles ranged from 10 - 350 ppm and, magically, he chose the range 90 - 120 as his sweet spot.
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Excellent info. So, unless we can get a rise out of our beloved mushroom man, ingress of this scale is better than none.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:

And here is that cork (click to embiggen):
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I wonder about extractables.

Almost as much as I wonder about ageing.

Hmmmm.
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How's your Italian? Ponsot gave me all sorts of literature about the corks.

I did ask him about neck fit and bottle variability. The question got him all excited, as he claimed that these corks wouldn't go in properly in the first place, unless the bottles were perfect.
 
Jeff, I did not write this down, but it is possible that we were told, for 1er:

- less than 100% new oak before, but for ~24 months
- 100% now, but ~20 months or less
 
originally posted by .sasha:
I did ask him about neck fit and bottle variability. The question got him all excited, as he claimed that these corks wouldn't go in properly in the first place, unless the bottles were perfect.
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Unless the bottling-line machines were perfect!

There is also some mishagas about how these corks don't stretch when stuffed into the neck, thus they seal very well (give or take imperfections in the glass, he says!).
 
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