ACCEPTANCE OF ALTERNATIVE CLOSURES GROWS

Published: 23 July, 2008

By Jack Hibberd

The number of consumers positive' about buying wine sealed under screwcap has doubled in a year, according to a new survey of 1,000 wine drinkers produced by industry analysts Wine Intelligence. According to the study, Closures: the UK consumers view 2004', 17% of consumers now like buying wines with screwcap' compared to 7% of respondents in last year's study. Also, the number of consumers who dislike the closure has halved to 36% (with around 55% not bothered either way). Cork, however, is still the favourite closure of the vast majority of consumers, with 55% of respondents positive and just 3% negative, almost exactly the same figures as in last year's study. Synthetic closures also garnered similar responses from drinkers to last year, with around 90% of consumers either positive or neutral about the closure (although the number who are positive did rise). What is interesting is that consumers are not being turned off natural cork, but alternative closures are gaining in acceptance,' said Richard Halstead, managing director of Wine Intelligence. But, although consumer acceptance of screwcaps has doubled, there still appears to be a hard core of around a third of consumers who just don't like screwcaps on their wine.' The findings that older drinkers (45+)and females are more receptive to screwcaps than younger drinkers and males were repeated in this year's study. The report costs 375 and comes with a free report: Closures in the On-trade' (a separate study conducted with Young's Pubs to test perceptions of screwcap in an on-trade environment). Visit www.wineintelligence.com to order a copy.

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