Do synthetic closures allow for the exchange of oxygen as in natural cork?
Quality synthetic closures allow for the same exchange of oxygen as for natural cork. In fact, the oxygen exchange for a synthetic closure is much lower than for its natural-cork counterpart during the first year of shelf life. Starting with the second year, natural cork guarantees a lower exchange of oxygen than its synthetic counterpart does. This is why it is much better to adopt a synthetic closure for wines that will be consumed within five years. It is important to add that synthetic closures guarantee repeat-and-constant sealing performance and thus there is very little or no difference from bottle to bottle unlike what happens with bottles corked with natural closures.
