GC-MS used in bottle cork test

The effectiveness of new corks has been judged using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry techniques.

A three-year study by the Cork Quality Council (CQC) tracked the efficiency of a range of stoppers in commercial bottling organisations.

ETS Laboratories in St Helena, California tested samples for the presence of 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA) - a common cause of 'cork taint'.

Researchers looked for TCA in concentrations of more than one part per trillion, which would indicate the beverage had spoiled.

However, according to the CQC, the standards of existing technical corks used in current bottling methods are so high that it resulted in no examples of TCA above this level in 144 instances.

The organisation noted recent developments in the cleaning of cork granules as one reason the quality of such wine closures is so high.

Previous experiments by the body used GC-MS to explore the link between TCA and defective wine, with fungal metabolism of chlorophenols found to be a leading cause.