Screwcaps impress expert

A pioneering move by a group of Marlborough wine-industry stalwarts to introduce screwcaps to their wine bottles was "unprecedented" in its success as a marketing initiative, says a visiting France-based professor.

Australian-born Damien Wilson was in Marlborough last week to speak with Jackson's Estate owner John Stichbury – who with winery owners John Belsham, John Forrest and Ross Lawson launched the screwcap initiative in 2001 – and others involved in the region's wine industry.

Dr Wilson is wine-marketing expert and lecturer at the Burgundy School of Business in Dijon, France.

It was his first visit to Marlborough and he was impressed by what he had seen.

"This is the workhorse of the New Zealand wine industry so I really wanted to come here."

Dr Wilson said he was particularly interested by the region's role in the successful adoption nationwide of screwcaps.

"I'm always looking at the acceptance and evolution of screwcaps and here you've gone from 2000 when there were no screwcaps to 2007 when 95 per cent of bottles had screwcaps.

"From a marketing perspective that's unprecedented. The closest thing to that kind of success would be mobile phones."

The four men behind the screwcap initiative took the plunge after becoming disillusioned with corks, which are believed to account for cork taint in between 5 per cent and 10 per cent of all bottles they seal.

The move was a huge success and has since been adopted by wine producers around the country.

Dr Wilson said the move wasn't a new one, with similar attempts in Australia in the 1970s failing because of the poor quality of the screwcaps. "The ones used now are nothing like the ones used back then."

It was, however, not just better screwcaps; New Zealand also faced less of a hurdle in making the switch because it was not bogged down by government regulations like those experienced in France.

Strict regulations and a three-century-old history of corkage stood in the way of screwcaps. "That makes it harder to get the critical mass behind it ... [but] if the authorities in France get behind it, it can be done. I really believe that."

He was looking forward to sharing the Marlborough wine stalwarts' recipe for screwcap success with his students, of whom he hoped would include a few Kiwis.

Dr Wilson was also meeting with New Zealand universities to promote students exchanges for his English-language wine marketing courses and had successful talks with Lincoln University.

- The Marlborough Express

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