Dimethyl sulfide (DMS) is a flavor compound, characteristic of the truffle aroma in red wines, and is well-known to be a fruity exhauster. DMS comes from the degradation of dimethyl sulfide potential (DMSP) during winemaking. Up to now, little is known about the role of the closure on the DMSP degradation during ageing. For that purpose, the effect of four micro-agglomerated wine cork closures was studied on the DMS/DMSP equilibrium, along with six other volatile sulfur compounds (VSC), was investigated in six Shiraz wines. After three months of accelerated bottle ageing, DMS levels increased significantly in all bottles. The most permeable closures induced a lesser accumulation of DMS, suggesting that DMS could be dependent on the redox status of the wine. At the same time, the DMSP decrease was proportional to the permeability of the closures. For the first time, a possible implication of closure permeability on DMSP degradation was observed.

Flavour scalping in wine is a well-known phenomenon that is defined as the sorption of flavour compounds on wine closures. While the impact of closure type was the object of several studies, no research has addressed the impact of wine closure permeability on flavour scalping. For that purpose, the adsorption of volatile sulphur compounds (VSCs) on four micro-agglomerated wine cork closures was investigated by soaking them in model and Shiraz wines for 7 days. From a kinetic point of view, most of the VSCs were quickly scalped after 1 h of soaking, and this effect increased after 6 h until reaching a plateau. Most importantly, no significant impact of the closure on the kinetics and adsorption rates of the VSCs was found. As to the quantitative aspects, VSC sorption on closures accounted for 1% to 5% of the initial VSCs present in the wines only, meaning that the impact was negligible under oenological conditions.