Vorige week viel het Wijnwijs.eu nog op in zuid-Italië. Van de honderden wijnen die daar tijdens de Apulia Wine Identity werden geproefd in officiële sessies of bij maaltijden was er niet één bij met een schroefdop. De meerderheid van wijnboeren en consumenten is daar tegen. En dat is het beeld in heel Italië. Dat land wordt nu in die opvatting gesteund door de Verenigde Staten. Want, zo heeft recent onderzoek van de wereldwijd bekende product-onderzoekinstelling Tragon Corp. aangetoond, liefst 94 procent heeft voorkeur voor wijn die van een kurk is voorzien. En 93 procent ziet de kurk als een kenmerk van kwaliteit in de fles. Waartegen natuurlijk van alles in te brengen valt. Maar daar gaat het nu niet om. Het onderzoek zegt iets over het ‘imago’ van kurk.

"These results are remarkable because we rarely find such overwhelming agreement among consumers," aldus Rebecca Bleibaum, Tragon's Vice President, Sensory and Consumer Insights. "We consider 70 percent to be a powerful plurality, but 94 percent positive purchase interest is almost unheard of."

Kerngegevens uit dit onderzoek:

Only 45 percent of respondents said they would consider purchasing wine with a screw-cap. Seventy-two percent said they would consider wines with a synthetic closure.


For gifts, dinner parties and special occasions, as many as 90 percent of respondents said they would prefer wines sealed with cork. Sixty percent of respondents said wines with synthetic closures were inappropriate for gifts, and 78 percent indicated they would not consider giving screw-capped wines as gifts.


Compared to similar Tragon studies conducted in 2004 and 2007, consumer opinion changed the most for screw-caps, with the closures having reached their peak of popularity in 2007. Compared to four years ago, the closure is now seen as less appropriate for all occasions.Half of respondents thought that wines with a screw-cap were of low quality. Only 11 percent indicated that screw-caps conveyed high quality. Synthetic closures have gained acceptance among consumers for everyday use, although respondents showed little preference for one closure over another for this category of use.

The web-based survey was taken by 347 consumers throughout the San Francisco and Chicago metropolitan areas in October 2011. The majority of survey participants have been enjoying wine for a minimum of a decade and consume it at least once a week. About half of the participants spend $9 to $15 on a bottle of wine but seldom spend more than $25. The survey was commissioned by the Cork


Quality Council and can be viewed at www.tragon.com/news/.

With its headquarters in Redwood Shores, Calif., Tragon Corp. is a leader in sensory evaluation and market research the world over. The company's team of scientists, technologists and marketing specialists has pioneered many of the sensory methodologies considered industry standard today. Tragon is utilized for product research by seven out of 10 product manufactures around the world.