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February 13, 2006: International
Screwcap Initiative Founded The New Zealand Screwcap Initiative is going global - and they are now training their sights on the world's red wines. The International Screcap Initiative (ISI) is an extension of the activities of the New Zealand Screwcap Initiative, a loose affiliation of quality producers who banded together in 2002 to promote the benefits of the closure.
While the screwcap movement has proved popular in the New World, particularly in New Zealand and Australia, producers elsewhere have been more resistant to the idea. 'Being a pioneer can be lonely,' said ISI coordinator Lorraine Carrigan. 'The International Screwcap Initiative will allow members to lean on one another and to learn from their combined experience.' The first signatory to the ISI is Chablis' Michel Laroche, who takes on the role of the organisation's European representative. Laroche has been at the forefront of the move towards screwcaps in France: all his Domaine Laroche wines are now sealed this way, including (from 2004 onwards) his top wine, the Reserve de l'Obedience. 'We're now in discussion with a number of other producers across Europe,' said Carrigan, 'and once we've got the ball rolling there, we're going to start talking to producers around the rest of the world.' Carrigan also said the ISI will not be restricting their activities to producers of white wines alone. 'People associate screwcaps with white wines more easily than they do with red wines, so publicising the fact that they can be used to good effect with reds is the next task.' 'This is a unique opportunity to get all these people
working together to explain to buyers and consumers alike
why they're using screwcaps,' says the ISI's chairman, Kumeu
River's Michael Brajkovich MW. |
Inexpensive low- to mid-range Australian wines are set to get cheaper, according to an Australian wine trade association. Prices for non-premium Australian wines are likely to reach new lows, David Lowe, president of the New South Wales Wine Industry Association, told Australian newspaper The Daily Telegraph. Bottles of wine presently retailing at around AUS$20 will fall by AUS$5, while bottles costing AUS$15 will be cut to just AUS$10, he told the newspaper. According to a recent market study from the association, the Australian grape glut is to blame. Combined with what the study calls 'a slightly under-performing export market,' Australia is producing 'more wine than can be sold or comfortably stored', it says 'The last year has given little comfort to grape growers, with another bumper crop and moderate sales growth sending stocks to record levels by June 2005,' NSW chief executive officer Stuart McGrath-Kerr said. 'Hopes for an easing of this pressure through robust export growth and perhaps reduced grape production failed to materialise, placing the industry in a worse position heading into the 2006 vintage than it was a year earlier,' he explained. Under the heading 'grape production,' the study notes the increase from 67,000ha of vines in 1993-94 to over 164,000ha at harvest in 2004.
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