The cork reappears in response to consumer research and feedback from distributors, the company says.That's according to Stan Hock, director of communications for the St. Helena, CA-based winery. “No matter how effective the closure might be, there was a downscale image associated with [twist-off caps] in the minds of consumers, and therefore retailers felt hesitant to fully promote the wine,” he says.
So for the first time since switching to the aluminum closure in 1993, Sutter Home last month began shipping all of its 1 ½-L “magnum” varietals with cork closures. Hock admits that retrofitting the company’s packaging lines to reinstall the corking device required a substantial investment, but he wouldn’t quantify it. Cost of units sealed with the aluminum closures and conventional cork are comparable, he adds. The wines’ retail prices of $8.99 to $11.99 do not reflect an upcharge as a result of the company’s investments in new packaging.
“Our decision does not imply a reassessment of the quality of the closure,” says Hock. “It simply reflects what appeared to be prevailing retailer and consumer attitudes on how different closures connote different levels of quality.”
Meanwhile, Oakville, CA-based PlumpJack Winery is preparing its own experiment in consumer perception of closure quality. The small winery, which produces premium luxury wines retailing for more than $100 each, chose to seal half its bottles of 1997 Reserve Cabernet with corks and half with tamper-evident, continuous-thread aluminum closures from Pechiney (Paris, France). The company applies the closure with a one-up tabletop machine.
PlumpJack was alarmed by industry figures that indicate 5% to 7% of wines contain cork taint. “Cork taint affects the wine both in the nose and on the palate,” says general manager John Conover. “That percentage was too much for us, so we wanted to explore the idea of different closures.” Although the company investigated synthetic cork as an option, it concluded that “a screw cap was the most viable solution,” says Conover.
PlumpJack is believed to be the first premium wine to employ a screw cap. Conover says although a lower quality perception exists about screw caps, he believes that PlumpJack’s production is small enough, and its reputation great enough, for consumer loyalty to win out.
As part of PlumpJack’s “experiment,” the ’97 Reserve Cabernet wines will be available only as a two-pack, with one bottle sealed with traditional cork, the other bearing the new screw cap. Retailing for $260, the two-pack is available directly from PlumpJack Winery www.plumpjack.com beginning Sept. 1.
