Wine consumers still prefer to buy wine sealed with natural cork ahead of all other closure types according to several independent surveys conducted in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia recently.

US consumers are particularly wary of screwcaps. Less than one in five US respondents to a joint US-Australian survey said they considered screwcaps an appropriate closure for special occasions, gift giving or dinner parties.

The study of consumer attitudes in the US and Australia led US-based Tragon Corporation and the Australian Wine Research Institute to conclude that wine companies considering exports to the US under closures other than cork should undertake “careful risk assessment”.

The main findings from the 2005 surveys were that US and Australian consumers both rate natural cork as better for special occasions, gift giving and dinner parties.

Further, closure type is the most important factor affecting US wine purchases, with US consumers preferring natural cork for all wine purchases.

These findings are echoed in another survey of the US wine trade, where respondents said that 94 per cent of consumers think that non-cork closures “sometimes or often cheapen a bottle of wine”. Of those respondents who worked in a restaurant or other wine serving setting, the majority preferred to open bottles with cork closures. Balzac Communications conducted the survey in December 2005 on behalf of APCOR.

Another US study, The 2006 Closure Report published by Wine Business Monthly in June 2006, found that “natural corks remain the most popular and frequently used wine closure”. Natural corks remain “the top choice” in all categories above US$10 a bottle, while screwcaps are “used primarily for more inexpensive wine”.

The 2005 Wine Intelligence survey of US attitudes to closures found “natural corks are still the unquestioned industry standard”. Reporting on the results in September 2005, Wine Intelligence managing director Richard Halstead commented on the “enduring linkage among US consumers between high wine quality and the use of a cork stopper”. He said “only 15 per cent of respondents actually feel positive about screwcaps versus the four in 10 consumers who still dislike this type of closure”.

Halstead’s advice to clients was to “remain cautious about making a radical change to their current closure unless there is a compelling market reason to do so”.

A similar situation exists in the UK, where the most recent survey results from Wine Intelligence (2004/05) show that “UK consumers still prefer natural cork over other stoppers”. Thirty six per cent of respondents said they did not like buying wine under screwcaps.

A recent comparative tasting of wines sealed under cork and screwcap points to cork’s strengths.

Undertaken by a panel of two wine writers and an experienced wine judge, the tasting comprised 23 Australian and New Zealand wines sealed under both closures with at least two years of bottle age.

Presented in an article by panel member Ralph Kyte Powell in The Age newspaper in Australia, the results show the closure debate to be complicated and highlight the fact that different closures will produce different wines.

Cork’s strengths were demonstrated in the chardonnay tasting with three of six wines deemed better under cork and two wines judged as equal.
 
Of the Penfolds Yattarna 2002, for example, Kyte Powell said: “The cork-topped wine was rich and complex, with lovely fruit, superb oak handling and gorgeous textural components all in great harmony. By comparison the screwcap wine lacked power and drive, and was unevolved, edgy and lacking coherence”.

Cork also came out in front on the tasting of nine red wines with cork the preferred closure for three wines and a draw signalled for four of the samples.
 
“The article suggests that the issue of cork versus screwcap is less clear cut than has been painted by some commentators,” said Amorim’s marketing and communication director Carlos de Jesus.

“It provides further evidence ‘in the glass’ that wines develop differently under different closures and that cork adds a dimension that screwcaps do not.

The article in The Age can be sourced at
www.theage.com.au/news/epicure/seal-of-approval/2006/02/19/1140283945303.html.

Wines develop differently under different closures.