This 2021 the Cork Center Laboratory, the laboratory of the Catalan Institute of Cork Foundation, celebrates 20 years of service to the cork and wine industry, becoming an international reference in the sector with a specialized technical team that seeks to promote the quality and competitiveness of companies in the sector.

The Institut Català del Suro, created in 1991, opened the Cork Center Laboratory in 2001 to join efforts between wineries and cork producers to bet on the standardization of corking and seek quality standards that benefit both parties. Twenty years later, it has become an institution specializing in the interaction between cork and wine, and its main objective is, according to the director of the Institut Català del Suro Foundation, Albert Hereu, "to help wineries offer their best wine with the cap that best suits them".

Wide range of services

The services offered by the laboratory go through quality controls (sensory analysis, gas chromatography, microbiology and internal protocol designs, among others); sample composition analysis; expertise in litigation matters; validation of technical innovations introduced by the industry, advice and training. In addition, it recently offers a new service of control of the longevity of a wine in a bottle aimed at the entire wine industry, tapera and alcoholic products that want to know the easily oxidizable potential or longevity of a wine sample as well as a new aroma control service in wineries to quickly and sensitively determine the 10 critical aromas that they can affect the final bouquet of a wine in the cellar.

The laboratory carries out quality controls for companies and institutions on cork samples, wine and wine analysis, water and chemical products, bottles and packaging, food and agri-food, and environmental. Produces around 2,000 annual reports, representing around 10,000 analytics, mainly in quality controls on corks.

The Cork Center is one testing laboratory accredited by ENAC in accordance with the UNE-EN ISO/IEC 17025 standard. In addition, it holds the secretariat of the AENOR "Cork" subcommittee for UNE standardization of cork stoppers, the Spanish delegation to the ISO international committee on cork for more than 20 years and, currently, it is the first laboratory that offers the global migration accredited essay for corks. It also participates in the organization of training courses and workshops, congresses, seminars and conferences for the promotion of cork.