If The Cap Fits . . .

As the wine trade is becoming less queasy about using screw-caps, Sally Easton MW argues that crown-caps are even cheaper, easier and faster to apply

MEMORABLY used on the "Original Zin" Primitivo and "Original Sin" Chardonnay wines in the late nineties, the crown-cap closure was clearly then ahead of its time.  Today, while both the beer and Champagne industries use the crown-cap without apparent issue as an effective and practical closure, the wine industry appears to register little unprompted recall and appears palpably reluctant to re-examine the option.

The critical issue is the nature of the lining of the closure, and thisdiffers between crown-caps and screw-caps. Essentially, between thescrew-cap and the bottle-top there is a thin polyester wadding, a thin plastic layer and an even thinner layer of tin. Crown-caps do not have this layer of tin, which allows a certain amount of gaseous exchange which can be beneficial for ageing the liquid within.

Much of the beer industry currently uses unlined polyethylene caps which are fine for a short shelf product such as beer, and therefore much of today’s wine. The Champagne industry uses similarly unlined polyethylene caps for a protracted period of ageing sur lattes. Indeed, research by the CIVC has shown that different manufacturers’ caps have different permeability to gases; a desired and sought-after effect in the Champagne industry, perhaps with positive implications for the still wine sector for wines for medium-term ageing.

Geoff Taylor of Corkwise identifies the advantages of crown-caps: "There is a potential cost benefit as they are cheaper, easier and faster to apply than a screw-cap." However, consumers are not always sympathetic to production benefits where they cannot see a benefit to themselves. So, it seems the issue for the marketeers and educators is one of how to get customers to understand that they will get a more intact product by using a closure that eliminates TCA and minimises oxidation and leakage risk.

Michael Brajkovich MW, of Kumeu River and leading light of the screw-cap (r)evolution, recaps the advantages of crown-caps but adds: "A major disadvantage with them is the requirement to use a tool to open them, as well as not being able to re-seal the bottle."

Also bottle choice is limited, as indeed it was prior to the screw-cap drive, but ACI Packaging NZ managed to develop a new bottle for screw-cap, as did Tesco, so this hurdle, although significant, is not insurmountable.

Additionally, crown-caps can withstand pressures up to 10 bar, compared to 3 bar with screw-caps, so crowns really do have the edge here. Perhaps they might even find a place as both a final as well as intermediate closure for sparkling wine?

Views within the trade are mixed with some never having considered crown-caps as a viable option. Sarah Wheeldon, business development manager at Thierry’s, is open to the idea of the crown-cap as potentially young, contemporary and trendy but says the company has yet to be asked to actively pursue the idea.

She expresses what is probably the overriding concern of the wine industry, that its image is that of a cheap form of closure, the same criticism as that levelled at screw-cap until recently. "In fact," comments Wheeldon, "if we’d had this conversation a year ago about screw-cap we’d have been negative, but look at what Tesco has achieved with its ‘Unwind’ range."

Helen McGinn, PR and product development manager for wine at Tesco, is firmly behind the company’s significant commitment, via the "Unwind" range, to screw-cap and specifically Stelvin.  She explains, "The wines were tailor-made and a bespoke bottle was developed, with long neck Stelvin closures – premium packaging, nothing like the screw-caps of old."

With about 4% of Tesco’s wine range suddenly appearing in screwcap this could have been a risky strategy but "the perceived resistance [among customers] has not been evidenced from the very strong sales we’ve achieved," says McGinn.  "Feedback from consumers is that they’re easy to use and they have no battles with plastic corks. But these are additional benefits as our prime reasoning was quality of the product."

Within a year of the project, wine numbers under screw-cap have increased 65% to 50 lines "with Bordeaux being one of the most innovative regions," says McGinn. "Sales of our claret are up 40% since it went to screw-cap."

Asked whether crown-caps might make an appearance as another choice for customers McGinn is "very happy with what we’re doing with screw-cap at the moment…"

Anecdotal feedback from consumers that "I’ve never had a bad bottle of wine" has to be very frustrating for wine industry members who know they will have had bad bottles but clearly haven’t realised.  This does the entire industry damage. If we’re selling 30 billion bottles by accident, as it were, how many more could we sell if we knew we were offering fault-free wines almost all the time?

Are consumers really still driven by the romance, mystery and ceremony of pulling a cork? Is the trade too screwed up about product quality, or is it too conservative to manage change? MikePaul, managing director of Western Wines offers another angle:

"The trade needs to understand why people drink wine and then respond to their emotional needs.  The arguments for getting away from cork are too rational and very powerful, but people are forgetting the emotion of wine. What consumers say and do are often very different."  But surely this doesn’t mean product integrity should come second?

To counter the image issues of crown-caps, Peter Querbach of the eponymous Rheingau estate has developed a bespoke elegant bottle.  Ingeniously there is a rigid capsule over the crown-cap, so shelf presence looks completely "normal".  It is only when one removes the capsule that the crown is revealed.

 Querbach says: "We have a back label on each bottle to explain the closure and we will soon be able to stamp the top of the capsule so consumers can identify which bottles are closed with our mechanism.

Without the elegant packaging we get low consumer acceptance but with the capsule covering we get 90% acceptance." Querbach says there are currently about 70 producers using this design of crowncap with interest coming from Alsace, Austria and Switzerland.

A really upbeat picture was painted by Pierpaolo Petrassi, commercial manager at International Wine Services, the company that delivered to the shelves of Thresher the Original Zin and Sin. "Without a doubt we are looking at that kind of NPD [new product development]. The UK is good at picking up technologies from other industries where something is sealed in glass." The need to create a premium image is vital, he argues, "with someone brave enough to do it at a high price point."

It seems Robin Woodhouse, based in Italy, has achieved exactly this with the crown-cap system he has developed. ChâteauOnline is currently selling a CrownCap® Barbera at £12.99, a wine that incidentally picked up two glasses in the 2002 Gambero Rosso guide. Also, the plastic liner in this crown cap is removable once the bottle has been opened, so the issue of needing an additional tool to reseal it is overcome.

Evidence from the Swiss industry, where screw-caps are used regularly on white wines, confirms the marketing challenge for crown-caps. Sebastien Fabre, Professor of Oenology at the Haute Ecole Spécialisée says:  "The image [of crown-caps] is not very good.  In Switzerland they are used only for table wine. The quality of the crown-cap itself is very good. Different research shows the quality of wine is at least as good with crown as with screw-cap; in fact, often better than screw-cap."

But does screw-cap have the crowning glory? Well, the New Zealand Wine Seal Initiative reports fantastic support. In the six months to the end of December 2002, nearly 15% of all bottles bought by NZ wineries were screw-cap, from 2% in the same period the previous year. One year into its screw-cap project Tesco has committed to putting half its range under Stelvin by 2005.

The Australian Wine Research Institute has no further news yet on the closure trials, but Peter Godden comments:  "We have certainly seen more screw-capped products coming through our commercial testing laboratory." 

The Antipodean and Tesco experiences suggest that screw-cap is here to stay. This is undeniable progress.  That it is used on premium products appears key to its acceptance to consumers to ensure that the association with cheapness is overcome.  Any new initiatives using crown-caps must also follow this path. 

And linking the improved quality message with the use of closures technically capable of delivering wine in its intended condition is a crucial part of winning over consumers.  The rest is down to marketing and education.

It appears the first challenge is to overcome trade hesitation. Consumers appear ready to welcome changing technologies in other industries, surely our own is not so far removed? But nothing will get to the shelf if the retailers are not pro-actively on board.

Everyone is absolutely right about the need to start at the top and work down. No-one can doubt that nothing comes much more expensive than Eiswein, or that a £12.99 Barbera from Monferrato is not aiming high, but perhaps we need something a little more mainstream to get some momentum going? Or can we somehow integrate the separate initiatives that exist in parts of Europe and use that evidence to get the ball rolling? Crown-caps can withstand significantly more pressure than screw-caps.