PRESS RELEASE

GRUART LA MANCHA COMMITS ITSELF CLEARLY TO RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT WITH THE INAUGURATION OF ITS ‘ONE BY ONE’ PROJECT

The facilities will examine ‘one by one’ up to a maximum of 10,000 cork stoppers per day and will allow the creaton of up to five jobs

Valdepeñas, 18 June, 2018

GRUART LA MANCHA

The ‘One by One’ project represents another step forward in the development of ever more neutral and safer natural cork stoppers and that Gruart La Mancha is set up as a reference point for quality in the sector, an objective, in which Francisco Gonzalez, President and CEO of GLM has been working for 31 years.

As the name implies, thanks to this innovative project, the space enabled next to the laboratory and the hiring of specialized personnel will make possible to analyse the cork stoppers one by one, that being standard in their finish, the customer prefers to be sure, opting for the advantages of this process, which is based on the olfactory analysis after the individual maceration of the cork stoppers in jars for 24 hours.

As a result of this process, not only the cork stoppers with any traces of TCA (Trichloroanisole) will be removed, but also those in with any aromatic deviation is perceived, because a good cork stoppers must smell good, since the cork has a pleasant odor.

The opening ceremony, which took place on 16 June, was attended by, among other authorities, the Minister of Agriculture Francisco Martínez Arroyo, and the Mayor of Valdepeñas, Jesús Martín. The latter has pointed to Gruart as one of the 3 or 4 companies in the town to feel proud of; while the representative of the Regional Government has taken the opportunity to stress the importance of innovation, announcing, in addition, that the Regional Government will allocate 3.7 million Euros for this purpose.

An innovating project

For his part, the President of Gruart La Mancha, has assured that this automated process, in which a dozen companies have participated, is totally new, as no reliable ‘electronic nose’ has been found yet. He has assured that the main objective of this process is to ‘guarantee that, at least for some very special wines, their cork stoppers were controlled one by one and relegate to the minimum expression the possibility that these bottles can be returned for any problem caused by the cork.

The cork stoppers that are considered within the designation ‘aromatic deviations’, which will be removed from the production circuit, will be analysed and researched by the University of Castilla-La Mancha, thanks to a new agreement that will be signed soon, and it will also count on the collaboration of winemakers of international prestige, who are highly sentitive to these problems.

Finally, Mr. González thanked the attendance of the sales representatives from Italy and France, present in the ceremony, and the work of all the staff and the sales team. He also excused the absence of the sales representatives from Germany, Austria and Mexico.

At present, there are already two workers expert in organoleptic analysis of cork stoppers, as a result of the selection of two competitions. These experts are currently able to analyse up to 5,000 cork stoppers a day, although the new facilities have a capacity of up to 10,000 cork stoppers a day. In the future, therefore, up to five people will be able to work on this project, established in two shifts and one substitute.

The project has been coordinated by the prestigious engineering ‘Alfatec’, specialized in projects for the agricultural and food sectors, mainly wineries around the world. The managing director, Mr. Justo Banegas has coordinated the work of a series of specialized companies in each of the stages of the process.