The world’s first resealable, reusable and recyclable sparkling wine closure has appeared on the market.
Zork’s SPK premium sparkling wine closure, debuted this week on Zamphire, a AUS$22 sparkling wine produced by McWilliam’s Wines under its Evans & Tate brand.
Zork, which six years ago released a similar closure for still wines, says that major wine companies in Australia, the USA and Europe have been testing the closure for up to 18 months. They include France’s Boisset Family Estates which specialises in innovative packaging.
Zork says that testing by the Australian Wine Research Institute has shown that the ‘peel and re-seal’, low density polyethylene closures retain the same qualities in wines as traditional cork and muselet closures with no flavour scalping or tainting. The ‘pop’ sound on opening is also retained.
Alcan launched a metal lever closure in May which it claims has the same results.
McWilliams said a recent survey conducted for the company showed that 50% of Australian sparkling wine drinkers found opening bottles difficult, 30% passed bottles to other persons to open, and 10% used a teaspoon or cling wrap to try to preserve the bubbles in wine which had not been drunk
Written by Chris Snow in Adelaide
