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August 2016 WINES&VINES 43 PACKAGING THE FRENCH EVOLUTION! FLEURS d e L A F I T T E FLEURS d e L A F I T T E Lafitte-USA.com A New Generation of Ultra Premium Natural Cork Brecon Estate Vineyards uses plain screwcaps for its white wines and natural cork for its reds. worries, and it breathes a little more. We don't use a completely inert liner with no oxygen transmission, with which we'd run the risk of reductive characteristics." But, he said, "Oxygen is the death of Sau- vignon Blanc. We want to keep redox at bay, and we have trialed closures for this. Passion (and) guava are good thiols, but very sensitive to oxidation." Vina Robles has tried synthetic corks, but Willenborg said, "I don't see why you'd do that. A screwcap liner gives you more. Why not just pick a screwcap and dial in your own oxygen transmission rate?" Nevertheless, the winery still performs qual- ity control on many corks. "People are (now) more accepting of screwcaps. But tradition dies hard. Key, high-profile accounts still want to keep cork closures. This industry doesn't take revolution kindly. Evolution, maybe." Closure decisions are congruent to wine- making, Willenborg said. "We follow up on evolving technology and are open to innova- tion based on science: What's best for the wine. We don't want to be the pioneer with arrows in our back." Little guys can play too Brecon Estate Vineyards, a 4,000-case bou- tique winery that recently opened a new tasting room in Paso Robles, also uses mul- tiple closures. Winemaker Damian Grindley, a native of Australia, where screwcaps rule, said he prefers that closure for his white wines—notably Albariño, an Iberian variety with a salty flavor that pairs well with seafood. With wines selling for an average of $46 per bottle, Grindley still prefers "simple pack- aging." The white wines are topped with plain black Stelvin screwcaps. "Our original white program was so small, it wasn't worth branding the caps," Grindley said. The wines are sold 100% direct-to-consumer, so retail shelf recognition is not too important. Sealed with natural cork, the red wines are topped with branded, 150-micron capsules Grindley says are "thicker than usual polyl- aminate" and sourced from Unionpack. Like most tiny wineries, Brecon Estate uti- lizes the services of mobile bottlers, so change- overs for different closures are not a problem. Barrel Bottler handles the whites; Bottle- Meister the reds. Wine consumers now choose from so many dazzling arrays of brands, packages and prices that the variety can be paralyzing. But it makes common business sense for wineries to evaluate the different options that make sense for their brands, wines and sales.