Budget Whole Cork Stoppers Cheaper than Plastics

Corticeira Amorim has officially launched a new cork to bridge the gap between whole cork and granulated cork wine stoppers. The Acquamark is a natural whole cork stopper with a water-based coating. The coating fills in holes and imperfections in the side of the cork to give a more even finish and improve its sealing ability.

This means the Acquamark can be produced much more cheaply than Amorim’s premium whole corks, allowing it to compete with synthetic stoppers. The Acquamark can be up to 50% cheaper than plastic corks and, in some cases, can be 30% cheaper than screw caps.

Amorim director of communication Carlos de Jesus explains that the coating ensures no loose particles can become dislodged. The coating also provides another layer of protection against TCA – the chemical that leads to the “corked” taste in wine. “It was not designed to be an anti-TCA measure, that is just a happy side-effect,” said de Jesus.

The Acquamark is intended to offer the prestige and oxygen-ingress properties of a whole cork stopper, at a price more comparable to Amorim’s agglomerate stoppers made of cork granules. The cork has been undergoing trialling and testing over a three-year period and is already in use by a number of wineries in an outside Amorim’s native Portugal.