Four out of 10 bottles of wine worldwide have a screw on cap. In Italy, a new group, the “Svitati”

One of the many ideological and often dualistic battles that for several years has created its own space and animated the debate in the wine world is the battle between supporters of cork stoppers or screw on caps. The allure of the traditional cork stopper and everything it entails in terms of “smelling of cork” (which, however, is rarer and rarer, thanks to technological developments in cork production, ed.) on one side. The supporters of the screw cap, instead, boast its almost perfect efficiency. And, now the screw cap closes almost 4 out of 10 bottles worldwide.In Italy it is 1 out of 5 bottles, excluding sparkling wines. What is more, now, a new Association has been founded among the ranks of this second faction, called the “Svitati” (uncorked). The Association boasts the membership of 5 excellent Italian wineries that have always gone against the tide, which are Franz Haas, Graziano Prà, Jermann, Pojer and Sandri, and Walter Massa. They are the “pioneers of the screw cap in Italy, who have come together to narrate, all together, their way of “making wine”. Above all, though, of corking the bottles, against the prejudices this type of closure has often been subjected to”.
The five wineries started their path a long time ago, in the 1980s, almost four decades, when they began to reflect on possibly using other types of closures. “Their avant-garde views inevitably moved towards the new frontiers of wine, which at that time were already making their way into the United States and New Zealand. Each one has brought his own experience from the many years of traveling, tastings, comparisons and tightening the belt. For instance, Mario Pojer had thought of "sealing the bottle with glass fusion, as if it were a phial, to prevent oxygen from passing through”. Graziano Prà, during a trip to Aspen, in Colorado, USA, instead, had a revelation after tasting a “Sauvignon Blanc bottled with a screw cap and sold for 30 US dollars, the first sign that prejudice was starting to fade away”, the producers said. They explained the choice of the screw cap and their objective supporting using it. “It perfectly maintains those sensory qualities of wine that are so sought after and enhanced by work in the vineyard and in the winery. Thanks to its characteristics, this type of cap allows constant micro-oxygenation, preserving the wine and allowing qualitative homogeneity even in the case of old vintages, as well as correct evolution”, the “Svitati” producers emphasized. “Our five companies have always searched for precision down to the smallest detail. We choose the vines that best represent us and the best grapes. Further, we have everything that can help us produce very high quality wines in the winery. But, more than anything else, we have the ideal cap to maintain the quality. That's why we must take advantage of it. The precision that we have always sought has now become a duty towards the public and towards wine”, the producers commented in unison.
Professor Fulvio Mattivi, researcher at the Edmund Mach Foundation in San Michele all’Adige, spoke alongside the group of "Svitati", in support of using the screw cap. He commented on the Australian Wine Research Institute study, which he conducted in 1999, and the very first interesting experiments on fourteen different types of wine closures, including the screw cap that has a much lower and variable oxygen permeability, depending on the coating used inside the cap. “Wine in bottles having this type of closure still showed a brilliant color and presented ideal sensory characteristics, even after many years. Furthermore, the results in tastings of both red and white wines in bottles with screw caps were equal to the best bottles that had cork closures”.
The five producers held a meeting a few days ago in Gambellara, which was the opportunity to study how the global market, especially over the past 8 years, has shown increasing interest to the screw cap closure. According to data from the companies Stelvin and Guala Closures, four out of ten bottles have screw caps. And the percentage in Western Europe, which has always been historically more traditionalist, has jumped from 29% in 2015 to 34% in 2021 (and 22% in Italy, excluding Prosecco).
“The closures market for wine”, Emanuele Sansone, Italy sales director of Guala Closures, explained in his announcement, “is a very important market for us. Out of the total 18 billion closures that are produced, around 3 billion are designated for this segment. Over the past few years, the market for screw caps has grown considerably, to the detriment of that of cork closures. Basically”, said Sansone said, “now, worldwide, 4 out of 10 bottles have adopted this solution and Guala Closures holds a market leadership position, thanks to its innovative and customizable solutions”. Of course, there is also a reference to the topic of sustainability. Screw caps made of aluminum are highly recyclable, Guala Closures explained (but this characteristic also applies to cork, ed.), especially when compared to closures made of tin, because they are composed of a material that can be reused indefinitely. “From this point of view, Italy has an excellent reputation”, Sansone concluded, “because 75% of all the aluminum produced is still in use and is utilized also in other productions”. In any case, the challenge of the screw cap to the cork one has been launched. “The teamwork of the “Svitati”, the producers concluded, considers this the starting point for a new wine “movement”. We are a group of producers that got together spontaneously to address an audience that is ever more aware, but also to producer friends — more and more numerous — ready to become just as “Svitati” as we are”.