AC Nielsen

USA Wineries Increasing Use of Cork Closures

Filed under: Wine

Despite a move in recent years to replace cork closures for wine with alternatives such as synthetic cork or screw-caps, a study by AC Nielsen on behalf of the Cork Quality Council indicates that the premium domestic US wineries are increasing their use of cork closures, with brands using cork showing higher annual sales growth over those using alternatives.

According to the data released recently by the CQC, out of 100 top selling wine brands, the number of brands using cork closures rose to 72 during the past five months, registering an increase of 7.5%. These brands using cork as the closure also posted an average annual sales bump of 10.2 %, compared to annual growth of 3.7 % for alternative closures majority of which are screw-caps.

Cork comes from a certain variety of oak tree that is only found in the Mediterranean, especially Portugal.

Tags: AC Nielsen, cork, cork taint, corks, french wines, Makers Mark, premium wines