Alternative wine closures are substitute closures used in the wine industry for sealing wine bottles in place of traditional cork closures. The emergence of these alternatives has grown in response to quality control efforts by winemakers to protect against "cork taint" caused by the presence of the chemical trichloroanisole (TCA).[1][2]
The closures debate, chiefly between supporters of screw caps and natural corks, has increased the awareness of post-bottling wine chemistry, and the concept of winemaking has grown to continue after the bottling process, because closures with different oxygen transmission rates may lead to wines that taste different when they reach consumers.[3]
The cork-industry group APCOR cites a study showing a 0.7–1.2% taint rate. In a 2005 study of 2800 bottles tasted at the Wine Spectator blind-tasting facilities in Napa, California, 7% of the bottles were found to be tainted.[4]
- ^ Shriver, Jerry (3 August 2006). "And now for something completely different". USA Today.
- ^ "'Just Say No' – To Cork! Don Sebastiani & Sons Announces Plans to Focus Exclusively on Alternative Wine Closures". Business Wire. 9 August 2005. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015.
- ^ Goode, Jamie, Ph.D. Wines & Vines (August 2008). "Finding Closure". Archived from the original on 10 April 2009.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Laube, James (31 March 2006). "Changing With the Times". Wine Spectator. Archived from the original on 14 March 2006.