In a recent survey, 55% of the respondents said they crushed less than 100 tonne of grapes in 2010-11 harvest, which represents almost three-quarters of the total Australian wineries.  Below are their responses to the “cork or screwcap” debate.

• 93% of the Australian wineries surveyed said they use screwcaps
• 74% of those who use screwcaps use this type of closure on 75%-100% of their bottled wine production
• 29% of respondents said they use natural cork
• 43% of those wineries who use natural cork only use it on less than 25% of their bottled wine production
• 24% of respondents said they use technical cork and just 8% use synthetic closure.
• The majority use it on less than 25% of their bottled wine production.

Type of closure used for export markets

• 59% of the 266 respondents said they bottled wine for an export market
• More respondents export wine to China (164), than to Europe (145), United Kingdom (148) and the United States (102)
• More respondents export premium red wine (above $21) to China than to the UK, US and Europe
• Respondents said 88% of the bottled wine destined for an export market is closed with screwcap
• 31% of exported bottled wine is closed with natural cork, 17% is closed with technical cork, and less than 1% used synthetic closures
• The smallest amount of exported Australian bottled wine with a screwcap went to China, followed by the US.

Perceptions of wineries based on closure type

• ‘Consumer consideration’, and ‘wine quality’ were selected as the respondents’ chief reasons for choosing a type of closure
• The majority of respondents rated screwcap as having better performance overall and on the bottling line, has a better price, is easier to remove and has excellent levels of consumer acceptance
• Most respondents believed cork had better environmental credentials than all other types of closure.

Let’s look briefly at the two in summary:

Cork:
For - Long history; it has been used as the sealing method of choice for over 400 years. Renewable resource. Readily biodegradable.
Agins – Can go bad. As little as 1% or as much as 20% of all wine sold is “corked,” which is to say, damaged by a problematic cork. Can be difficult to remove, and sometimes break off into the bottle.

Screwcap:
For – allow the lowest amount of oxygen permeation in comparison to natural and synthetic corks, protecting oxidation of wine. Less expensive than natural or plastic corks. Easily opened. Upright storage. Not affected by humidity. Resealable.
Agins – May suppress aroma. No drama, theatre or romance to the wine experience.

So what’s the choice?

The debate on cork or screwcap continues, and I suspect will remain one of those hot topics for sometime.  Some say that cork is only suitable for red, while a screwcap is okay on a white wine.  What do you think?  What’s your preference?

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