A wine closure trial conducted by leading UK retail chain Somerfield has proven positive for cork and in particular Amorim's high-tech Neutrocork seal.
The trial - a joint effort between Somerfield- is comparing the performance of Neutrocork and a synthetic closure on a Somerfield own-label chardonnay over 12 months.
Former Somerfield beer, wine and spirits technical manager Brian Humphreys said variations in the wine under the two different closures became apparent after just nine months.
"When we undertook the nine months tasting there was a noticeable difference in the aroma and to a certain extent the flavour, which was much better and fresher in the Neutrocork sealed wine," he said.
"The plastic sealed wine appeared to be suffering a slight oxidising, which is the usual outcome, but nine months is sooner than I would have expected."
Somerfield, which was acquired by The Co-operative Group in March, operates approximately 750 local grocery outlets across the UK. Its wine range includes about 80 own-brand lines comprising wines sourced worldwide.
More than 16,000 bottles of the Cantina di Soave chardonnay were bottled with 10,000 sealed under cork and 6000 under the previously used synthetic closure.
Brian supervised the bottling, taking bulk samples from the beginning, middle and end of line runs for the trial. Sample testing has been carried out at Somerfield by an independent panel and at the Amorim laboratory in Portugal.
Prior to bottling, Brian toured Amorim's facilities to review the latest developments in cork production.
"The main message from that visit was the amount of thought and investment that Amorim has applied throughout the production process," he said.
"It was really impressive. Amorim was one of the first in the industry to realise that things had to change and they deserve recognition for their efforts to improve cork quality."
While Somerfield currently uses a range of closure types on its own-label wines, Brian said it was likely that they would make a clear distinction between cork and plastic closures in the future.
"I think this trial helps to substantiate that cork is a lot better than plastic in many applications," he said.
Brian suggested Somerfield would consider changing the wines currently under plastic that it believed would be better under cork - basically the higher end own-label wines.
He said he hoped the entire UK wine trade could benefit from the data sourced from the Somerfield closure trial.
"There are a lot of common problems within the wine industry that can only really be sorted out by co-operation between suppliers, winemakers and retailers," he concluded.
