Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/853816
August 2017 WINES&VINES 37 sures themselves, these have be- come more elaborate in recent years, making bottles more easily identifiable on market shelves or wine racks. Rivercap in Benicia, Calif., n o w p r o d u c e s a n A b s o l u t e Green Line (AGL) of capsules. Rivercap's Jeremy Bell and Paul DuPont said it's an ecological alternative concocted of sugar- c a n e a n d w a t e r - b a s e d i n k s rather than polyurethane and solvents. They pointed out that sugar cane is a renewable re- source that absorbs greenhouse gases during its cultivation. By utilizing sugar cane and moving from solvent-based to water-based ink, Rivercap AGL reduces capsule CO 2 by some 80%. Currently Rivercap produces 145 million AGL capsules annu- ally, saving the emission of 520 tons of CO 2 . Since lead capsules were banned to eliminate landfill pol- lution, tin has been considered the premium capsule material. River- cap Workshop is a new service to provide customers with technical design assistance and expertise for custom capsules. Options include Quatro Arte, a new tin-decorating process al- lowing as many as four registered colors and designs in the tradi- tional silkscreen format for greater intricacy. Even without the emergence of actual design trends, Bell and DuPont commented that packag- ing refreshing is especially preva- lent among large and corporate wineries. As price points have gradually increased, there's been more shifting back to tin: The $20 price point usually triggers a move from polylaminate to tin capsules. Screwcaps continue to remain the popular choice for whites and younger drinking red wines, they said. From Maverick Enterprises in Ukiah, Calif., marketing coordina- tor Shelby White agreed that win- ery customers are looking for more intricate designs with smaller scripts and unusual fea- tures in an effort to set their bot- tles apart from the competition. Hot-stamp capsule décor can include brilliant foil sheens. Mav- erick has been working closely with customers to develop a holo- graphic hot stamp that changes colors as buyers walk by. Another client-driven feature presents custom-emboss and hot-stamp features. Just 10 years ago, it was hard to identify capsules with even the most minimal branding, so these trends represent real change of capsule culture. Shorter-than-standard cap- s u l e s a l s o a r e e m e r g i n g f o r stand-out style—or because win- eries want to display more of the product within the bottles, ac- cording to White. Push and turn Novatwist is an unusual screwcap finish that we first picked up last year at the Wines & Vines Packag- ing Conference. It's imported by Premier Wine Cask. The exam- ples we saw were black, but they also are available in colors with branding, according to sommelier Marc Kauffman, Novatwist sales representative. PACKAGING Novatwist, a tamper-evident alternative to metal screwcaps, can be applied either by hand or by swapping out a capping head on the bottling line.