Wine Business Monthly Features Vocus Cork Analyzer as a Premier Analytical System for TCA-Free Cork Production

Richard Carey
Wine Business Monthly, August & September, 2021

A comprehensive article titled, “The Path to TCA-Free Cork,” appears in the August (Part 1) and September (Part 2) 2021 issues of Wine Business Monthly.

The work, divided in two parts, is an exhaustive review of how the cork industry has confronted the primary chemical compound responsible for cork taint in bottled wines: 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA).

Part 1 of the article illustrates the steps the industry has taken to protect the cork stopper in the initial stages of production, reviewing changes implemented from the harvesting of raw materials in cork forests to the transportation of cork material to the processing plant.

Part 2 reviews the multiple TCA-related challenges the industry has tackled in the remaining phases of cork production, from the first steps inside the plant to final testing of products for the presence of TCA.

This technique [Vocus technology] provides [TCA] discrimination more quickly and accurately than virtually all other analytical systems for cork.

Richard Carey, The Path to TCA-Free Cork, WBM, September, 2021

As Carey describes in the article, in order to drastically reduce the TCA problem, the cork industry has invested millions of dollars in technological innovations. It has transformed a traditional artisanal production process into a cutting-edge industrial sector with modern extraction and purification plants that utilize advanced analytical instrumentation. 

As the article highlights, the TOFWERK Vocus technology is capable of outperforming all other technologies (gas chromatography or IMS spectroscopy) in terms of speed, precision and accuracy. The Vocus technology used in the Vocus Cork Analyzer excels not only for the quantification of TCA, but also for the simultaneous determination of a plethora of volatile compounds that can be released from cork in the gas phase.