Michele Bosc • Director of Marketing at Chateau des Charmes, Canada
"Indeed an interesting question. You will find supporters and raving fans for all closure options. In our 32 years of producing wine under our own label we have tried so many versions of natural cork, synthetic, composites and screwcap. Today it's a winemaking decision akin to stainless vs. Oak. If the wine is meant to be enjoyed young and fresh then screwcap. If meant to be aged then high quality natural cork.
We strongly disagree with the comment that cork is the worst closure of aging wine. We believe it is still the best. Also for consideration it is the option with the smilers carbon footprint. Consumer acceptance is now a non issue in our market.
I too have a hard time opening screwcaps. The easiest is to hold the entire cap in one hand then twist the bottle, like opening sparkling."
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Michele Bosc • Bernard- you are assuming that the reduced costs associated with screwcaps is passed onto consumers. I have yet to see this. Those who have switched to screwcap have maintained retail price. Here in Canada the cost of a good natural cork is about $.60, screwcap $.20. Add the cost of glass, labels and capsule (if needed) and the total package cost is around $1.50, though many factors including volumes purchased will move this up or down. So on a $20 bottle of wine the package costs are 7.5% of the total price. Price inelasticity in today's wine market suggests that if a producer incurs higher costs in producing the wine, chances are those costs won't be passed onto the consumer in higher retail prices lest the fear of impacting sales. Of greater concern are higher input costs related to Mother Nature. When we have to spend significantly more in the vineyard to maintain quality, we have to eat those costs. Lighter weight glass is not more expensive and neither is FSC papers. So chosing cork amounts to a $.40 premium. Negligible in the grand scheme of things.
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Michele Bosc • Dan- ordinarily I would agree with you but I have been evaluating studies for decades thanks to my former life in the pharma industry. This study is actually well designed and of sufficient length/size to eliminate the concern for bias. Moreover, your argument assumes screwcaps are perfect 100% of the time. That is clearly not the case. 2-5% failure for any closure is, in my books, acceptable. Nothing in in life is 100% perfect and there is no perfect closure. We use both cork and screwcap and see about equal "failure" rates so for us this is not part of the discussion/decision. The carbon footprint of the glass (we have switched to lighter glass) and labels (we use only FSC papers) is the same no matter what the closure. So again, cancels each other out. Pound for pound natural cork is by far more Eco friendly. That cannot be disputed. The question is, is this an important consideration for your decision making?
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