Taylors screw cap - a decade on

This year, Taylors Wines celebrates the 10-year anniversary of using the screw cap closure, a movement that would go on to change the way that Australia (and the world) packages wine. Since 2000, Taylors has been trailblazing with the early adoption of the screw cap, a trend which gained momentum in the Clare Valley before taking over the southern and New World of wine.

To celebrate 10 years, Taylors recently conducted a new study on screw cap consumer perceptions to compare with a similar survey undertaken in 2004. The questions to consumers were the same but results were dramatically different.

Key results:

• Twice as many people believe that screw caps preserve wine better than cork when compared to findings in 2004 
• 71% don’t associate the screw cap with cheap wine, unlike 49% in 2004
• 90% of wine drinkers report they are happy to take a screw cap bottle of wine to a restaurant, doubling the level of acceptance in 2004

The findings show a true step change in consumer habits and proof that quality-driven winemaker innovation can change wine drinker’s perceptions.

The start of the worldwide movement to bottle wine in screw cap goes back to early-2000, when Mitchell Taylor joined with a number of fellow Clare Valley winemakers at the classic Rising Sun Hotel for a historic meeting.

After a long night of conversation (and a few glasses of wine), the group of pioneering Clare Valley winemakers agreed to initiate what would be a game-changing move: to bottle the region’s iconic riesling under screw cap.

Soon after the meeting, Taylors moved to bottle 100% of its riesling with the closure. The introduction of screw caps was watched with interest by a group of New Zealand winemakers who were experiencing the same quality issues with cork closures.

In 2004, Taylors shifted to bottling 100% of its wines (whites and reds) with the closure - the first major winery in Australia to do so.

Troy Smith, Managing Director of ASA, one of Australia’s leading screw cap manufacturers, states: “Australia and New Zealand have definitely led the international charge with approximately 90% of still wine in Australia bottled under screw cap. Overseas markets such as the UK, driven by the major supermarket chains, as well as South Africa and South America, are also showing good acceptance and growth. Whilst in the more traditional wine-producing nations of France, Italy and Spain, cork is still the dominant closure. The United States, while showing some growth, moving from 6-8% over the last three years, definitely lags behind other new world wine-producing nations.”

The drive towards the screw cap movement came at the height of the ongoing debate in the wine industry about just how much wine is ruined by cork taint. Most well-informed sources agree that at least 3% of wine is affected - probably more.

Cork taint, a problem commonly caused by a compound known as TCA (its chemical name is 2, 4, 6 trichloroanisole) is produced by a fungus in the cork developing inside the closure and infusing the wine with a smell that many describe as similar to the smell of wet hessian or wet cardboard and can destroy the taste and aroma of the wine. An equally serious issue for a wine is the potential for random oxidation, which can arise due to the inherent variability of cork’s oxygen barrier.

Mitchell Taylor, Managing Director of Taylors Wines, has long been a passionate advocate of screw caps: “Moving our wines to screw cap was unprecedented at the time; however, we saw the substantial benefits of storing wine this way and we wanted Taylors to be at the forefront of this significant shift of perception in the marketplace. We’ve found the consumer now sees the advantage of screw caps and are pleased to say goodbye to the problems associated with corks. We are just waiting for the rest of the world to follow.”

The Taylors winery is now home to the largest screw cap bottling line in the region, to ensure that both packaging and winemaking are aligned to the family’s ongoing commitment to quality and excellence.

The surveys were conducted by Newspoll in 2004 and by BDA Marketing Planning in 2010.