The Effects of Wine Bottle Closure Type on Perceived Wine Quality: An Expected Result Plus a Somewhat Surprising One

How a winery chooses to close a bottle of wine depends on a variety of factors, from function to consumer perception/marketing. While natural cork closures are the more traditional choice, there has been a lot of technological advancement in the closure industry. There are

many different kinds of synthetic and technological closures on the market, from cork-alternatives to screwcaps, many of which are designed to optimize oxygen ingress into the wine, as well as minimize or eliminate the presence of cork taint.  Despite these technological advances, many wineries still prefer to use natural cork for their closures, as from a marketing perspective, cork is associated with the highest quality according to the average consumer.

Though much is known about the technical differences between wine bottle closures, very few studies in the academic literature have looked at closure type from the consumer perspective, namely consumer associations between closure type and wine quality characteristics. Other non-academic studies have been performed regarding this topic – for example, one year ago, a study by Wine Opinions in conjunction with The Portuguese Cork Association and the Cork Quality Council, found that consumers preferred the natural cork closure as they preferred the tradition and “romance” of pulling of the cork ritual, and that 68% of participants felt wine closed with natural cork was of higher quality.

While there are many of these types of studies out there, there aren’t as many found in the academic literature.  A new study, accepted into the International Journal of Hospitality Management (and currently available online), aimed to add to these relatively small number of studies by examining how wine closure type affects wine quality perceptions by the average consumer.

Photo courtesy Flickr user clubvino

Brief Methods

This study took place on the campus of Washington State University in 2013 and recruited a total of 310 people (though only 299 were used for statistical analysis). Participants included students, parents, faculty/staff, and other members of the community.

Participants first completed a written survey, which asked questions related to experience with wine, consumption habits, and wine preferences.

After the survey, participants were asked to complete a tasting where they were informed that they would be tasting wines poured from bottles with different closure types.

For the tasting, participants were seated with a mat in front of them with the labels “Wine A”, “Wine B”, “Wine C”, and “Wine D”. At each label, there was a picture of a non-descript wine bottle with a different closure type next to it, indicating that the wine they taste came from that bottle with that type of closure.

While participants thought they were tasting four different wines, in reality, they were only tasting two.  Two Bordeaux-style blends from a local winery were used so that participants could be more easily convinced that they were drinking four different kinds of wines (instead of say, using just one single wine).

While participants were informed that the wine came from a bottle with a specific closure type (in this case, natural cork, synthetic cork, glass stopper, and screwcap), the wine was actually poured from a keg and had never once seen the inside of a bottle.

Participants were asked to taste each wine, and then provide information about each wine’s taste, appearance, bouquet, and quality.

Selected Results

  • Wines thought to be closed with natural cork were rated significantly higher than wines thought to be closed with screwcap for all taste and quality parameters.
  • Wines thought to be closed with natural cork were rated significantly higher than wines thought to be closed with artificial corks for all taste and quality parameters.
  • Wines thought to be closed with natural cork were rated similarly as for wines thought to be closed with glass toppers.
  • Wines thought to be closed with glass stoppers were rated higher in appearance than wines thought to be closed with screwcaps.

Conclusions

This study provides support for the current evidence that consumers see wines closed with natural cork as higher quality than those closed with artificial corks or screwcaps.  Interestingly, the consumers in this study did not find a quality difference between wines

closed with natural cork and wines closed with glass toppers, indicating that glass toppers might be a viable alternative for closing wine bottles, at least strictly from a marketing perspective.

The results were interesting in that even though they were only served two wines that had never seen the inside of a wine bottle (and thus never came into contact with any type of wine closure), participants believed that they were served four separate wines using four different closure types and ultimately “found” differences between them.  The power of suggestion is an amazing thing, for sure!

Of course, this study was somewhat limited in that the pool of participants was rather narrow and likely not representative of the general wine drinking population, so a larger, more comprehensive study could be done to add further support (or not) to this preference for natural cork hypothesis. It would also be interesting to see how people with different expertise levels rate wine quality knowing the closure type.  I would guess those with more extensive wine knowledge would rate the wines similarly, as they likely understand that closure type does not indicate wine quality, and those with little to no wine experience might indicate wines closed with natural corks are higher quality, mostly due to marketing influences. These are just guesses, however, and would be interesting to see in an academic study setting.

Overall, this small study provides support for the notion that consumers generally see wines closed with natural cork as higher quality, though it is interesting to note that glass toppers as an alternative were also seen in a positive light.

Source:

Reynolds, D., Rahman, I., Bernard, S., and Holbrook, A. 2018. What effect does wine bottle closure type have on perceptions of wine attributes? International Journal of Hospitality Management. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2018.05.023

 

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