Decanter World Wine AwardsItaly approves synthetic closures for DOC, DOCG
- Monday 22 October 2012
Synthetic corks: 'denting dominance' of natural closures in Italy
The move opens a new front in the highly-charged wine industry debate on closures.
Synthetic cork producer Nomacorc is already plotting ways to dent the dominance of natural corks in DOC and DOCG wines.
'We've effectively been blocked from 30% of the market, so it's huge,' Nomacorc's CEO, Lars von Kantzow, told Decanter.com.
'It's not like winemakers are waiting in line for the day they can buy Nomacorc. Although, in some cases, this is the case. Some will still use natural cork, but at least now we can go to them. Before, it wasn't worth our while.'
Caldirola, producer of Barbera D'Asti, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo and Chianti among others, confirmed it is interested in taking advantage of the new rule.
Silvia Fiorentini, marketing manager for the Consorzio Vino Chianti Classico, said individual denominations still have the final say on closures.
'Certainly it will not be possible to use alternative corks or screwcaps without a formal change of our production code,' she said. 'The Consorzio is open to taking it into consideration,' she added.
Nomacorc is the word's second biggest wine closure producer, selling around 2.4bn synthetic corks annually, behind natural cork maker Amorim, which sells just over 3bn closures per year.
Have your say!
Jeff Slater
October 25 20:58
First, it’s important to note that not all synthetics are the same – Nomacorc closures aren’t those ‘plastic plugs’ that are extremely hard to remove from the bottle or end up breaking your corkscrew.
There are actually several aspects to consider that undermine a wine’s performance beyond the closure, including bottling/insertion, glass irregularity, exposure to heat – so it’s difficult to assume that the closure is always the problem. However, to ensure that our closures perform to the highest standards, Nomacorc has partnered with several academic research institutions to evaluate oxygen’s role in post bottling and closure selection. Based on these findings we launched our Select Series closures, which are designed to solve the problems of oxidation and reduction by offering four different closures with different oxygen permeabilities. While it’s unfortunate that you’ve experienced bad wine and problems with oxidation in the past, we can assure you that Nomacorc’s coextruded closure technology allows the wine to be served as the winemaker intended.
We are always welcome to comments, questions, or concerns so please email me: jslater@nomacorc.com if you’d like to discuss further.
Cheers!
Jeff Slater
Director of Marketing - Nomacorc
Wines Inform Assessors
October 24 20:20
It is a sad notice.
The worst wines I have siped the last 2 years were closed with Nomacorc.
Some producers have recently go back from screwcaps to cork
David
October 24 05:12
It's About time. Who cares about cork- it's a closure for oxidation. If you like the Producer and his wine- drink it and enjoy it! Most wines are consumed within an hour of pulling the cork anyway. A little pretention goes a long way.
Honkytonkhero
October 24 02:50
Screw-caps are not cheaper, nor are they environmentally responsible. They are a much better option than the poor Nomacorc closure though, oxidation is a huge problem with these synthetic cork closures. I just hope if DOCG producers in Barolo, Montefalco etc opt for the screwcap not Nomacorc, or just stick with Natural cork.