During the coming Vinitech salon, the wine world will reveal its most recent innovations. As for tendencies on the corking front, screw caps are becoming more and more popular, as Joël Elissalde from Vignobles Despagne explains.
The art of unscrewing the cap on a good bottle of wine to enjoy either among friends at home or at a restaurant, has become a habitual gesture for millions of wine lovers across the planet : 3 billion screw capped bottles were opened this year. This 'corking' method, traditionally used by spirits and other alcohols, is gaining ground in the wine sector.
"If all our customers asked for screw-capped bottles, I'd be delighted! Screw caps are the solution for the future because they are practical and reliable. However, making changes happen in the wine world is complicated and many consumers have pre-conceived ideas on the subject," explains Joël Elissalde, who originates from the Basque country and is director of the company Vignobles Despagne.This family-owned company is proprietor of châteaux Tour de Mirambeau, Mont Pérat and Girolate which represent a total of 320 hectares of vineyard. For Vignobles Despagne, based in the Entre-Deux-Mers area of the Bordeaux vineyard, screw caps are already old news, which is not the case in the rest of France. Twenty years ago, the Despagne family began to specialise in the 'aviation-size quarter bottle', a screw-capped 18,7 cl bottle of wine especially designed for in-flight drinking.
"This experience gave us sufficient time to stand back and examine this technology and it's effect on the wines over time. Today we give our clients the choice between a screw-cap or a traditional cork for most of our range of white, rosé or red wines. It's up to our clients which packaging they order," say Vignobles Despagne, who sells two million bottles per year, 90% of which are for the export market.
The screw-cap advantage : Joël Elissalde personnally and openly prefers screw-caps because " ..they protect the wine aromas more effectively. And, of course, there is no risk of a corky smell of taste! Screw-caps are neutral, having no smell or taste which may interfer with the wine. Also, the twelve screw-capped bottles in one case will all have exactly the same taste. Lastly, contrary to popular belief, wines in screw-capped bottles age very well," indicates this expert, who adds, "Our screw-cap sales are on the increase : of the million 75 cl bottles we sell, 20% of them are screw-capped."
The growing success of screw-caps and synthetic corks began with the new millenium, arising from problems of smells and taste from natural corks at the time. Cork is a living material made from the bark of cork-oaks in Mediteranean areas (Portugal, Spain and North Africa) and can sometimes give the unpleasant corky smell or taste to wine when faults occur its manufacture.
As a result, cork manufacturing companies, such as the world leader, Amorim (whose headquarters are in the Bordeaux area), are increasing quality and security levels in their factories to avoid further problems.
Despite competition from the new corking technique, natural corks are still used on the majority of the 17 billion bottles of wine sold on the world market per year. Of this total, 3 billion bottles are screw-capped : ten times more than in 2003!
The attle continues between new and traditional techniques and one of the arguments against screw-caps is the risk that wine, in the absence of gas exchange through the cork, could suffer from "reduced taste" due to "asphyxiation".
The anglo-saxon drive : In France, well-known operators such as Vignobles André Lurton in Bordeaux, Boisset and Michel Laroche in Burgundy or Tariquet in the Gers region, have all made the transition from natural cork to screw-cap. The result will be more bottles being opened by a simple twist of the wrist, easily re-'corked' to be finished the next day or later. Even the quality Bordeaux châteaux are joining the screw-cap movement, like Château Agassac (Haut-Médoc) and Malartic Lagravière (Pessac-Léognan), although only for their bottles of rosé for the moment. Many châteaux in the Médoc and Saint-Emilion are experimenting with the new method.
One thing is certain : thanks to the progress in screw-cap techniques made by the various manufacturers - especially the work on the joins located on the inside of the capsule and the exterior design - screw-cap bottles should no longer be considered of lesser quality than their corked cousins. However, wine is often perceived as a cultural product and its image is sometimes as important as the techniques used to make and package it.
As French consumers often remark : "I would miss hearing the cork pop - it's part of the pleasure of opening a good bottle!"
"This is much less the case for foreign consumers," argues Karine Herrewyn, who is marketing director for Alcan Packaging Capsules, the world leader in screw-cap manufacturing (brand-name "Stelvin"). "Practically the whole of the wine production of New Zealand and two thirds of that of Australia is sold in screw-capped bottles. The anglo-saxons are less influenced by tradition," continued Karine and, when asked if the screw-cap might be a passing trend, she replied : "This is not a fashion. Consumers are more interested in the practical aspect. This is certainly the case in the anglo-saxon countries. In France, the screw-cap market is progressing but we need to convince the distributors. In any case, none of the producers who have already opted for screw-caps want to go back to cork!"
IN BRIEF :
VINITECH SALON IN BORDEAUX FROM 2nd TO 4th DECEMBER :
The most important date in the world of viticulture's calendar is the technical exhibition held at the Bordeaux Lac Exhibition Centre during the first week of December. One thousand exhibitors expect 40,000 professional visitors from all over the world (producers, merchants, oenologists, technicians, cellar masters and cultivation managers..).
In an area covering 80,000 metres square, visitors will find a multitude of equipment for vine management, wine-making and packaging : from secateurs and tractors to bottling machines and various types of cork, including the latest screw-cap designs.
César Compadre
doc@sudouest.com
S.O. 18/11/08
Translated by Maxine Colas.
francewinechateaux@gmail.com