North American Distributor: G3 Enterprises; Modesto, CA
Web: www.diam-cork.com
WIN Profile: Diam Closures
New facility in France set to expand production capacity to 2 Billion Diam, one of the undisputed leaders in the wine enclosure industry, has experienced an explosive U.S. sales expansion, while planning for even greater capacity once its new production facility comes on line in France next year.
Diam is the creator of an innovative beverage closure system, which begins with the raw bark of a cork oak. The bark is crushed and filtered to remove woody materials and then, through the Diamant procedure utilizing CO2, the compounds responsible for sensory deviations in wine, including trichloroanisole, (TCA) are extracted.
“Natural cork has limits and some risks,” explains Francois Margot, Diam’s leading sales and export manager for North America. “There are a lot of molecules that can migrate into wine in a sensory way. DIAM has fixed that risk. We provide a 100 percent guarantee against TCA taint and a mechanical performance in our products that can exceed the shelf life of cork.”*
Margot points out that it is consistency “from bottle to bottle” that has excited winemakers around the globe and is responsible for doubling Diam’s market share in the U.S over the last two years. “We’ve seen an increasing number of wineries convert their entire production to Diam closures,” says Margot.
The company, which also makes closures for sparkling wine (Mytik) and spirits (Altop), has created a product for wine that can control oxygen transmission at three different levels; medium OTR (oxygen transfer rate) low OTR and very low OTR. This allows the winemaker to choose the closure that will fit the evolution of the wine. Their latest innovation, Diam 30, has a mechanical guarantee to remain elastic enough to preserve wine for at least 30 years.
“It is the first product on the market to give such a guarantee,” Margot asserts. “The key point here is security. The Diam 30 is made for high-end premium wines intended to age for years. We guarantee to bring the craftsmanship of the winemaker to the consumer in every bottle, with security even after 20, 25, or 30 years in the bottle.”
DIAM’s Spanish factories in San Vicente de Alcántara can churn out nearly 1.3 billion cork-product enclosures each year, and when the French facility in Céret is fully operational next June, capacity is expected to reach 2 billion closures.
Diam partners with G3 Enterprises, a leading packaging and logistics provider for the wine, spirits, microbrew and specialty food industries, in providing best customer services to wineries in North America. G3 finishes and prints Diam corks at its Modesto plant. “G3 has been a great partner. Their sales force and technical services are very strong. This allows us to focus on making quality products while G3 builds strong front relationships and supports our customers,” concluded Margot.
*Releasable TCA below the limit of qualifiable detection ≤ 0.3 ng/l by GC/MS)
More Information
Preview of the new DIAMANT facility: view video
