Clare Valley wine producer Taylors has put part of its first sparkling wine release under screwcap after trials found no loss of freshness or fizz.
Taylors – known as Wakefield in the UK – decided to bottle 10% of its first sparkling wine release under the closure, with managing director Mitchell Taylor describing the development as ‘the latest frontier’.
Taylors was an early adopter of screwcaps for the company’s still table wines, introducing the closure for its Rieslings initially before switching its entire range of whites and reds to screwcap in 2004 because of fears over cork taint.
‘Because we have been such a driver in screwcaps in the early days, we thought we would like to be one of the first to trial a new seal on sparklings as well,’ Mitchell Taylor told Australia’s Herald Sun.
Some Australian producers have already introduced crown caps in place of cork for their sparkling wines, but others have voiced concern about the ‘loss of romance’ associated with the move.
Earlier this year, De Bortoli released two sparkling wines under the Viiva screwcap closure developed in partnership with Guala Closures Australia and glass manufacturer O-I.
Meanwhile, Barossa-based fine wine company Rusden Wines has switched back to cork from screwcap after a five-year period, deciding to bottle its entire range under cork as a result of ‘quality control issues’.
Rusden winemaker Christian Canute said the company had lost customers because of the wines ‘sweating’ under screwcap, producing dominant reductive characters and necessitating the about-turn.
Written by Richard Woodard
