Monthly Archives: December 2013

By Gustavo Ferreira, Assistant Professor Extension Economist, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Virginia Tech and Joao Ferreira, Consultant, Mid-Atlantic Wine and Agribusiness Marketing Solutions.

Introduction

Marketing research has shown that wine purchases are influenced by a series of wine attributes such as price, quality, region, varietal, etc. Other factors such as bottles used, label design, or closures have been also found to be influential. Surprisingly, alternative wine closures were introduced in the wine industry fairly recently comparatively to natural cork closures, which can be traced back to the sixth century BC (Joncheray 1976). The main reason behind the development of alternative closures has been the susceptibility for wine to spoil due to cork taint. More specifically, the 2, 4, 6-trichloroanisole (TCA) is a chemical produced by a mold that can infect natural cork and result in a musty, moldy aroma at very low doses (Goode, 2005). For wineries, cork taint will likely result in lost revenue and brand-name Continue reading →