Decanter World Wine AwardsO'Shea Award goes to Australian Screwcap Initiative
- Wednesday 24 October 2012
'Integrity and quality': screwcaps
The 2012 McWilliam’s Maurice O’Shea Award has gone to the Australian Screwcap Initiative.
McWilliam’s chairman Doug McWilliam announced the Australian wine industry's most prestigious award to enthusiastic approval at a dinner for 250 guests in Melbourne last night.
The award was collected by Clare Valley winemaker Jeffrey Grosset - one of the driving forces and earliest supporters of the concept of screwcap - on behalf of the Australian Screwcap Initiative.
Accepting the award, Grosset referred to early and successful screwcap trials undertaken in the 1970s, ‘but commercial introduction wasn’t realised because people weren’t aware of the benefits.’
The importance of this form of closure to the Australian wine industry cannot be overstated, Grosset said.
‘The introduction of screwcap remains the most significant advancement in the quality and consistency of premium wine in recent times. A thorough understanding and acceptance of the closure in critical export markets, particularly China, may well determine whether we are seen as taking leadership in terms of integrity and quality of premium wine.’
The Australian Screwcap Initiative dates back to August 2000, when 13 Clare winemakers launched their Rieslings under screwcap.
The number doubled the following year, with some wineries keeping a proportion of their production under natural cork. The International Screwcap Initiative was founded in 2006.
Grosset also took the concept to New Zealand, where it has been equally successful. Today, the vast majority of Australian wine sold locally is under screwcap. Exports are not as extensive but growing.
Past winners of the Maurice O'Shea Award include the late Max Schubert, the late Len Evans, Brian Croser, Jacob's Creek, James Halliday, and the Australian Wine Research Institute.
Awarded on a biennial basis, it is named in honour of McWilliam's great winemaker, Maurice O'Shea, who died in 1956.
Have your say!
ken gargett
October 30 02:47
The estimate from Jeff Grosset is that at least 95% of premium wine in Australia is under screwcap. Marginally more whites than reds but an overwhelming majority for screwcaqps in both categories.
ken gargett
October 27 00:40
to colin, i will try and see if i can find the correct figures but the percentage for both red and white 'premium' wines would be very high. more so for whites but not by that much. grange is still under cork, though from my understanding of talking to various people from penfolds, that is more of a marketing issue. i think i am riht in saying that the winemakers, or certainly some of them, would be very happy to see the move to screwcap. they have certainly done extensive trials.
not sure how it works in the UK but in australia, wineries send samples of their wines to all the critics - from the basic quaffers to the very pointy end. it is very rare to reach for a corkscrew these days. i'd be very surprised if the percentage of premium wines under screwcap for both red and white was less than 90%.
i was talking to one winemaker last night, who is one of our finest and one of the few remaining who has stuck with cork. he was saying that it is not uncommon for local sommeliers, when presented with a bottle of his wine, to actually try to work out how to open them, being unfamilar with a corkscrew. i would suggest that they are far from our best somms but that there are young people entering the industry who not fasmiliar with cork shows how far australia (and nz is just as committed) has come.
and it is worth noting that, although it is not even an issue here these days, most people in the industry are so convinced as to the superiority of screwcap that they just believe it is only a matter of time before the rest of the world catches up.
Colin Harkness
October 25 12:41
Jeffery Grosset refers to 'premium wine'. I wonder what percentage of the real quality wines of Australia are bottled with screwcaps. A recent enquiry from the makers of The Grange, for instance,revealed that this prestigious wine remains under natural cork.
Furthermore, I wonder if the percentage of white wine bottled under screwcaps far exceeds that of red wines from Australia, given that, generally speaking, there is more red wine produced with a view to ageing than there is white.
Enlightened comments/answers welcomed!
Chris Exley
October 25 09:23
Australians just love their daily dose of aluminium!