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FROM A NEAR monopoly for cork closures just 20 years ago, the now much broader closures category continues to innovate at what appears to be an increasingly rapid rate.

News of technical innovation, product innovation and aesthetic innovation keeps attention focused on what’s happening with closures and the increasingly complex choices brand owners need to make. What closure will keep the wine good enough for its designated shelf life as well as add an appealing marketing buzz?

By necessity, technical innovation still dominates the cork industry. It has spent the past 20 years investing in ways to remove TCA from stoppers – with considerable success, it should be said.

The latest iteration of technical improvement is the ability to screen every single-piece natural cork stopper and remove all with more than 0.5ng/L releasable TCA before they leave the factory – this is below the human threshold of detection. This option is only available to the top-notch, highest grades of natural cork and with a notable on-cost.

MA Silva global sales director José Remoaldo says of its guaranteed TCA-free stoppers: “We are currently selling to the US, France, Spain, Germany, Austria, Italy and Australia.”

Amorim communications director Carlos de Jesus says: “We have delivered NDTech corks to wineries in six countries.”

Cork Supply’s global marketing director Jonathan Jewell says: “DS100+ was designed specifically for the detection of TCA.” It delivers, he added “high-quality single-piece natural corks at a value that will benefit an even wider range of winery customers. In 2017, we expect to triple capacity to 60 million corks”.

TCA LEVELS

For less posh corks, typically batches are guaranteed to have an average releasable TCA level below a certain level, often 1.5ng/L – except Diam, which is made from super-critical carbon dioxide-cleaned cork flour, so every stopper is guaranteed to have a releasable TCA below 0.3ng/L.

Given that its technical corks are already TCA-free, Diam has more recently been working on oxygen transmission rate (OTR). The company’s “latest innovation has been Diam 30”, which offers a shelf life of up to 30 years, says its managing director, Dominique Tournieux, adding: “Diam 30 is growing by 40%-50% per year. [This and] Diam 10, growing by 20%-30%, are replacing natural premium corks. The way premium wineries view Diam has totally changed in the past five years.”

Amorim has also seen big interest in its Helix cork, which twists off like a screwcap. De Jesus says: “In 2016, two US wine industry heavyweights are launching brands under Helix.” This and the company’s technical Neutrocork stopper form a core part of Amorim’s growth strategy. De Jesus says: “Our 2015 results were the fifth year of consecutive growth of sales. You will see more growth carried by innovations such as Helix, and also carried by a renewed interest in wine packaging. In countries such as the US and China, natural wine packaging has such an important role, you’ll see additional growth in cork.” He adds: “When you bring natural and technology together, you have a very strong proposition.”

This appeal of ‘natural’ is one that is gaining ground across the board. At the end of 2014, synthetic stopper manufacturer Nomacorc created a version of SelectBio – a stopper with better sustainability values, being largely made from plant-based polymers, and coming with a 15-year shelf life – that looks and feels like cork: the colour of cork, with the cellular format of cork printed on the sides, and a soft, creamy matt texture to mimic the feel of cork.

In 2016, Nomacorc built on this idea with the launch of Zest – a stopper, with the look and feel of natural cork – for sparkling wines. It has the corky feel and is also made partially from plant-based polymers. Malcolm Thompson, Nomacorc’s vice-president for strategy and innovation, says: “Zest is our latest roll-out and our first entry into the sparkling wine category. It has the SelectBio technology, with soft feel and natural look, and is decorated using new printing technology – it’s almost indistinguishable from two-plus-zero,” the classic mushroom stoppers for sparkling wines.

He adds: “It has a single, low OTR; we want tightness, to keep carbon dioxide in. And it has a zero carbon footprint.” Needless to say Nomacorc’s pretty happy with the product, which already has a “high demand”, and between 12 to 18 months’ shelf life, which is more than enough for the vast majority of bubbly.

Growth in the sparkling category has not been lost on Cork Supply, which has also expanded into stoppers for this sector. Jewell says: “We recently purchased a facility for the production of technical corks [which] recently began producing Cuvée, a new line of sparkling wine closures.”

SPARKLING OPTIONS

Given the ‘pop’ associated with bubbly, it’s interesting that screwcap manufacturers have, for quite a while, offered options for both fully sparkling and semi-sparkling (frizzante) wines. Amcor launched Stelvin P, for sparkling wines, about a decade ago. The company’s marketing communication manager Karen Quirchove says: “Today we offer one unique liner for this type of closure, different from our usual range of liners for still wine. The Stelvin P liner has a different foam density and diameter to support a higher level of pressure – up to six bars.”

The other key screwcap supplier, Guala Closures, has Viiva for sparkling wine and Moss for semi-sparkling. Anne Seznec, its marketing director, says Viiva is a big seller in Australia. “They use a lot of sparkling wine outdoors – picnics on the beach, at Christmas. But it’s more difficult in Europe – there are rules for some appellations which require mushroom-shaped closures. We are still facing these legal issues,” she says.

Screwcaps for sparkling will take time, Seznec adds: “Like screwcap on still wine 50 years ago. But it is super convenient. There are lots of habits to change.” In contrast to Amcor, Guala offers dedicated sparkling wine liners with different OTRs.

Ranges of liners with different OTRs reflect the innovation changes in screwcaps for still wine, which have been all about offering different OTRs to customers according to the shelf-life and bottle-maturation profile of the wine. In 2015 Guala introduced three new liners for still wine screwcaps, each with a different OTR. Intriguingly consumers, should they want to, can identify which liner is being used because, Seznec says: “The name of the liner is on the inside of the cap. It took two years to fix with the liner supplier the printing on the internal layer. It’s also a track and trace aspect for customers.”

Stelvin introduced its range of liners offering different OTRs for still wine a year or two before Guala. Quirchove says: “We continue to focus on Stelvin Inside [the name of the range]. It’s a slow burn, changing people’s liners because they want to run tests” to see how the different oxygen permeabilities affect the bottle maturation of their wines.

But for spirits the technical and trend issues are completely different. The liner, so critical to wine objectives, is not even a point of idle conversation. With spirits’ high alcohol content, says Seznec: “The liner is not a topic of interest to spirits.” And screwcaps account for more than three-quarters of the about 40 billion unit spirits market.”

PERSONALISATION

Where spirits lead is in personalisation and branding. Quirchove says: “We see a customisation through innovative packaging – shape, touch, colour – required by premium brands to differentiate from the highly competitive commodity market.” Seznec agrees, saying: “Spirits is more about branding, about customising. The trend in spirits is to use nice design agencies. For the past five years there has been keen attention to luxury designs and we have a range of luxury closures.”

Seznec explains: “It was a tiny segment in the past, now it’s becoming really important. You can have weighted polymer to look and feel expensive. Engraving and embossing with brand logo. For example, the Tanqueray No Ten closure last year had fine and detailed engraving on the closure. Ten years ago it was not technically possible to do this.” Emphasising this move to premium, for the past couple of years Guala has attended the Luxe Pack ‘creative packaging’ show, which has previously been the domain of cosmetics and perfume.

Seznec continues: “Our screwcaps are always branded in spirits. You cannot do a standard black plain closure like you might have in wine” because it’s not different enough. Of course all this adds costs. Depending on how specialised and elaborate, these luxury screwcaps could be 10 or even 20 times more expensive than the straight standard screwcap.

Elsewhere, glass stopper Vinolok has been expanding its portfolio since Czech glassware company Preciosa took over the company. The appeal of the stopper has broadened dramatically since it no longer requires a bespoke bottle.

Customisation is the name of the game here too, with printing and logos. And not just for wine. Spirits, water, vinegar and olive oils are also beginning to use this elegant, smoothly tactile glass stopper. Vinolok is offered in many different colours of glass and colours of plastic ring that does the sealing bit on the bottle.

Premium gin producer Ian McCulloch, the founder of Silent Pool Distillers, was persuaded by Vinolok’s qualities for his Silent Pool gin, saying: “It’s about quality cues, tactile feedback when you pick up a bottle. [The bottle] needed to be heavy, clear, sharp high-quality glass so it looks like a quality piece of packaging. We discovered we could get a glass stopper. It’s got a fantastic weight to it, people like holding it. It’s smooth, heavy, distinct, different. It’s got the same profile as the neck of the bottle and now it’s colour-matched to the bottle, a teal-greeny-blue. We like the fact the whole thing looks like it’s glass,” says McCulloch.

Glass is ‘natural’ too. And Vinolok’s new product this year is the Woody – a mix of “natural components with glass to meet the trend for natural materials” in packaging, says a spokesperson. And following the trend to take a luxury route to market, this stopper is being launched at Luxe Pack Monaco in September.

The eyes have it, it seems.