One of the questions that we are sometimes asked is – why don’t we use screwcap for sealing our our wines? There are actually a couple of answers to this question. Closures have always been a subject of great interest to me, something that I have studied very closely for many years now. The fact that we now use a synthetic closure (with zero carbon footprint) was not a choice that was made casually, perhaps driven by cost – it was a long-studied and carefully considered decision. Indeed, with our current synthetic closure we know that we can, to some extent, now control the evolution of our wines (or at the very least, influence it’s shelf life). Not forgetting, of course, that evolution will also be determined by how the wine is stored….

A recent study, by Oxford University no less, is claiming that perhaps a cork is the right choice – that wines closed with a cork actually do taste better than those under screwcap. A very bold, and perhaps somewhat contentious claim! Having said that, they do qualify this by saying that the ‘ceremony’ of extracting the cork might have something to do with this. That subliminally this process adds a little ‘romance’ to the wine drinking experience – perhaps adding to the anticipation? One of the researching professors added “Our senses are intrinsically linked – what we hear, see and feel has a huge effect on what we taste”. They also went on to say that corked bottles were more likely to induce a “celebratory mood”, and we all know that our mood, surroundings and the company that we keep can all influence our perception of a wine.

My final comment is that we are very happy with our current choice of closure, as are the majority of our customers. This is rarely an area for complaint which pretty much supports the old adage “If it ain’t broken, then don’t fix it”!