(Forbes) - During my recent trip to Burgundy in early December 2016, I found several top producers switching from cork closures to Diam. I knew that large negociants like Louis Jadot and Bouchard Père et Fils were happy using this closure for their white wines, but now small, high quality domaines are switching over. Étienne de Montille of Domaine de Montille, who will bottle all his wines under Diam, says, “It made sense to me to reject a closure that can potentially spoil my wine. I am happy with Diam and have been using it for my white wines but I will now bottle all my reds with Diam too.” Domaine Leflaive, one of the top white Burgundy producers, will also switch to Diam.

For many years, the wine industry accepted a high fault rate of corked wines that were infected with trichloroanisole (TCA), a compound that imparts musty, off-flavors in wine. It took a wave of New World producers frustrated with the situation that shifted a cork-focused world to explore other alternatives. For decades, European producers accepted the cork taint rate, which during the 1990s ranged between 5% to 10%. The cork industry remained firm that the rate was only 2% to 3%. Even at this conservative rate, it was deemed unacceptable to a growing number of New World producers.