PONDUS®
A valuable research and co-creation project in collaboration with a selection of prestigious Italian wineries, to produce cork stoppers designed and weighed for each specific wine.
Each cork is obtained through a weight selection process in which a high-precision balance, after rejecting too light or too heavy cork stoppers, selects only those with an ideal specific weight, capable of guaranteeing a perfect seal and equalizing the evolution of wines in the bottle without the occurrence of extraction problems.
Why Pondus®?
The objective of this kind of selection is to standardise a natural product such as the one-piece natural cork stopper, relating it to the specifications of bottling and storing wine in bottles.
Cork is a naturally breathable material. Its structure, therefore, allows oxygen to penetrate through it and play an essential role in the evolution of wine, from the beginning of the winemaking process to the moment of tasting the product itself. The correct management of oxygen – in particular the Oxygen Transmission Rate (OTR) – influences all the organoleptic characteristics of wine, from aromas to structure and colour. Knowing how to control and monitor its contribution becomes a real tool for optimising the quality of the final product.
INVOLVED WINERIES
TECHNICAL EXPLANATION OF THE RESEARCH PROJECT
From a single cork oak stand and from cork extracted in a single harvesting season
During 6 months outside on a concrete courtyard
In non-chlorinated water for 1 hour at 100°C
For TCA elimination: in a steam current at 180°C (Genesis® treatment)
The cork stoppers will be rectified to the following sizes grouped as follows:
Cork stoppers 24 x 44 mm and 24 x 49 mm
Cork stoppers 26 x 44 mm and 26 x 49 mm
The four groups will be functional to the different types of bottles that will be used in the bottling test.
Super Extra Class, obtained by electronic selection (cameras + laser beams)
Each winery will try one or two sizes, depending on their need and the type of bottle in use. Each winery will have 42 cork stoppers per class to test, for a total of 126 bottles. Bottles should be stored half vertically and half horizontally, in order to observe and assess also the bottle storage variable related to the densimetric band of the tested cork stoppers.
There will be 7 tasting steps, including one per year in Sardinia at Sugherificio Molinas’ premises, to compare the objective instrumental results. For each tasting step, 6 corks for each type of densimetric class will be tested.
On June 5, 2026, a tasting of the Pondus project took place at the Hotel Sporting in Porto Rotondo. The event was attended by the Gini Vini, Ronc dai Luchis, Agraria Riva del Garda, Terre de la Custodia, and Rizzi Vini wineries, together with technicians and collaborators coming from Molinas cork factory, the winemaker from the Peruvian winery Tabernero, and the winemakers from the Sardinian wineries Surrau, Capichera, Cantina Perandria, and Cantina del Rimedio.
The tasting confirmed how each wine reacts differently to the different weight classes of the cork stoppers. Some expressed their peculiarities with lighter cork stoppers, others with heavier cork stoppers.
A result that reinforces the principle behind the Pondus® project: identifying, for each wine, the ideal combination of structure, expected evolution in the bottle and specific characteristics of the cork stopper.
Production site
Località Ignazioni, 07023
Calangianus (SS), Sardegna – Italia
Legal head office
Via Belvedere 60, Località Macia
37040 Arcole (VR), Veneto – Italia
