New Tamper Eviden Closure from Guala Closures
Evidence of Tampering From Guala Closures
A ‘Tamper Evident’ wine screwcap is the latest innovation from leading closures producer Guala Closures Group, who are the first to market with an ROPP (roll on pilfer proof) screwcap sporting a ‘Tamper Evident’ band.
The closure has been a year in research. “Even if the concept is quite simple, the technology behind it certainly isn’t,” explains Marketing Manager Anne Seznec. “We’ve introduced a coloured plastic ring that appears in the narrow space between the glass bottle neck and aluminium skirt once the screwcap has been opened.”
A slightly different aesthetic in the tamper evident area differentiates this new closure from the standard one, but the application, glass finish and pour remains unaffected by the new technology and the price difference will be “negligible”. A bespoke design service is available for this and the other closures produced by Guala Closures Group.
“Wine counterfeiting is a growing concern,” she comments. “Some experts estimate that up to 5% of fine wine sold today is fake. Traditionally, these producers have shied away from alternative closures, but if they can help provide a solution to what is a very real problem then they have to be worth considering.” Guala Closures expects an immediate take-up on this product and Seznec also anticipates that there will be interest from the fine spirits sector also.
Guala Closures Group produces more than eight billion closures a year, with 21 facilities in four continents. The group branched into screwcaps in 2003 and has rapidly become the market leader; with its plants producing aluminium closures for wine, the company’s global footprint allows a fully ‘glocal’ production and door-to-door supply service. The group also places great emphasis on R&D, offering clients and contemporary and innovative new product design service.
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Document downloadGuala Closures launches sparkling wine screwcap - 01/07/2009 just-drinks.com
Guala Closures Group has created a screwcap closure specifically for sparkling wine.
The Italian company said this week that the closure, known as 'Moss', has a "specially developed liner to maintain perfect carbonation levels for up to two bars without losing any of the product's fresh flavours".
The closure is already being used by several Argentinian producers in their domestic market, while Brazil's Salton Winery has adopted the closure for its 'Lunae' Frisante range, which will be exported worldwide.
Founded in Italy in 1954 by the Guala family as a production plant to make plastic components, the Guala Closures Group produces around 8bn closures per year, with 20 facilities on four continents. The group branched into screwcaps in 2003, and claims to be the market leader.
New sparkling wine screwcap is launched - harpers.co.uk 30/06/2009
Adding to the ever increasing choice of wine closures, a new aluminium screwcap specifically designed for slightly sparkling wine has been created by the Guala Closures Group.
A cousin of their Divinum closure for still wines, Moss has a specially developed liner to maintain perfect carbonation levels for up to two bars without losing any of the product's fresh flavours.
Brazil's Salton Winery has adopted the closure for its new ‘Lunae' Frisante range which will be exported world wide and since its launch several Argentinean producers have been using Moss for wines available on the domestic market.
Global Wine Co-ordinator Alessandro Bocchio says: "Moss is a very modern closure and therefore perfect for the fresh, young and light style of sparkling wine that countries all over the world are starting to produce.
"The fact that Brazil's largest sparkling producer has introduced Moss to their brand new Lunae Frisante range is testament to its benefits and suitability."
Guala Closures Group produces more than eight billion closures a year, with 20 facilities in four continents.
The group branched into screwcaps in 2003 and has rapidly become the market leader, having ten plants in eight countries that produce aluminium closures for wine.
Interview with Marco Giovannini, CEO of Guala Closures Group - Drinks Media Wire 22/06/2009
Could you present your group and the two divisions (Closures and PET)?"
Guala Closures Group, founded in Italy in the 60's, is today the worldwide leader in the production of non-refillable closures for spirits and leader also in Europe, Latin America and Oceania for the production of aluminium closures, the closures being manufactured for spirits, alcoholic beverages, wine, edible oil and pharmaceutical products.
The Group has also a PET division producing mainly pre-forms but the closure manufacturing activity is the Group core business as we are producing over 8 billion closures per year in four continents through an international network of 20 production facilities from China to Argentina.
Our main mission through our R&D department "Creative" is to provide innovative solutions to protect our Customer's products and brands against counterfeiting, and to offer new solutions to growing markets such as wine; we successfully do this thanks to our 50 years of experience in the closures field.
"How do you expect your markets to develop over the next 5 years?"
With the continuous growth of the BRIC economies, where we have manufacturing facilities, we are expecting a growing demand for brand protection solutions both from the local and international brands. For example, in India, the safety closure is seen as a premium value addition to a brand, the rapidly expanding Indian economy presents a good opportunity for development and innovation in the market. In USA, we are seeing a continually rising counterfeiting awareness from our customers.
More generally, we see a big demand worldwide for more interactive and irreversible tamper evidence systems allowing consumers to safely authenticate the product they are consuming. We will continue to support also the growing trend of premiumisation across, not only the "niche products", but also the mainstream global brands.
"More specifically, what is your view on the development of your activities in the wine business?"
As screwcaps for wine are becoming widely accepted or even dominant in such countries as New Zealand and Australia, we are developing the next generation of aluminium closures, introducing for example a first level of protection, new exclusive shapes (like the WAK we launched last year), premium decorations techniques like embossing and new markets use like the Divinum Moss for slightly sparkling wines in Italy or Argentina and now Brazil.
"Could you describe the "next generations" of safety closures you are working on and the benefits for the wine industry?"
With the increasing sophistication of the counterfeiter and the level of counterfeiting especially in our emerging markets, we see a need for us to fuse together various technologies. Our innovation teams are actively involved in mechanical, electronic and chemical authentication research amongst others to provide the very best solution for our customers. The growing trend for global brands to offer a single pack aesthetic means that more and more often we will need to offer a safety and open pourer closure as a single image; additionally our customers have now fully accepted that the closure is an integral part of the brand identity and provides one of the first interaction between the consumer and the brands.
"What do you expect from Vineexpo 2009?"
Vinexpo gives us the opportunity to meet in one place most of our customers and take the occasion to show them our latest innovations. This year we are especially highlighting the sustainability of aluminium for the wine closures to address the growing awareness of this topic and demonstrate the environmentally friendly characteristics of aluminium.
The new website
Guala Closures Group unveiled their new website at this year's London International Wine Fair - www.savethewines.com - which has been set up to lay out the facts about the numerous environmental, financial and quality-saving benefits of aluminium screwcap closures.
Visitors to the stand were able to check out the website's dedicated video section (have green credentials, meet the world's need, safeguard quality, save your money) featuring a selection of light-hearted, consumer-focused films (Screwcaps... for a simple life!) showing how easy-to-use and straightforward screwcap closures are.
"The latest spate of erroneous claims made by certain cork producers means that we cannot afford to remain silent any longer," explains the company's Global Wine Co-ordinator, Alessandro Bocchio. This new website and the film, Screwcaps For a Simple Life, are our way of getting the message across to the Trade and Consumer that screwcaps can be kind to both wines and the environment. Aluminium screwcaps are easy to use, safeguard quality and can be recycled."
Disney Embraces Screw-caps
When Walt Disney World Resort launched The Wave last June, an eco-friendly concept in its Contemporary Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., it didn't choose a conservative road that guests would find instantly familiar. Instead, despite the need to appeal to a broad range of guests, Disney opted to innovate with a focus on Southern Hemisphere wines bottled entirely under screw-cap closures. To make the balance between the new and the familiar work, Disney turned to one of its legendary strengths: Its front-of-the-house staff.The Wave moved into the resort one floor below Disney's California Grill, which operates a successful beverage program that focuses on wines from the Northern Hemisphere. Playing off its proximity to the other restaurant, and looking to introduce guests to a wider world of wines, The Wave went in a different direction: literally.
"We thought it would be not so much a gimmick but an opportunity for us to feature wines from the Southern Hemisphere," says John Blazon, master sommelier and manager of wine sales and standards for Disney. The Wave's 80 or so wines all hail from south of the Equator and, except for three sparkling offerings, every bottle on the list uses a screw-cap enclosure instead of cork.
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David Gleave MW champions the screwcap
Terroir is a word much used but little understood. Over the years, I've heard any number of wine faults - reduction, aldehydes, brettanomyces, cork taint - attributed to terroir. This is a pity, for it only serves to perpetuate a myth that obscures one of the great things about wine: true terroir is one of the most exciting qualities one can find in a glass of wine.There are manifold reasons why winemakers may fail - no matter how hard they try - to capture the character of their site in the wine they put into bottle. Recent tastings point me in two directions. One is too great a weight being given to ideology. The current trend for ‘real' wines is a case in point. For the past 25 years, most producers have been trying to diminish the amount of sulphur dioxide (SO2) used in their wines.
But producers who try to eliminate the use of SO2 entirely sacrifice its beneficial effects (as an antioxidant and antibacterial agent) on the altar of ideological purity. They also sacrifice terroir, for without sufficient levels of sulphur their wines (on the evidence of tastings over the past decade) develop aldehydes, high levels of volatile acidity and other maladies.
Closures debate: Alessandro Bocchio of Guala Closures Group sets the case
We have tried to maintain a dignified silence on the closures debate, but the latest spat of erroneous claims made by certain cork producers means we can no longer afford to remain silent.First of all: aluminium is recyclable
- Aluminium - infinitely and easily recyclable
Recovering and recycling aluminium allows you to save 95% of the energy necessary to produce it from a raw material. "Aluminium can be recycled over and over again without loss of properties, and aluminium scrap is collected and melted everywhere in the world". GARC (Global Aluminium Recycling committee)
And it's so easy for the consumer to do. Cans and other aluminium products have been recycled for a long time and so has glass, which means if a wine is sealed with a screwcap then the entire bottle can be recycled - the companies who collect them simply separate the aluminium from the glass and send the two different materials on their way.
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Screwcaps take 15% of global market
Screwcaps now boast a 15% share of the world's closure market, according to a leading screwcap manufacturer.Italian closure company Guala claims global screwcap sales have increased by 25% in the past year to 2.5 billion closures. Anne Seznec of Guala said recent growth had come from Europe, which is regarded as a tough market for alternative closures.
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Nomacorc leads major study into closures
NASA technology found to remove cork taint
Screwcaps are best: Decanter verdict
'We've seen a lot of growth in France, Germany, Austria, Spain and Italy,' said Seznec. 'Screwcap sales have been growing much faster than we'd thought, since the end of 2006.'
Holiday Wines | Tip 2: Look for Wine Screw Caps
More and more excellent wines are being sealed with screw caps to prevent corkiness (a problem with natural corks that produces a wet cardboard–like smell in a small percentage of wines). Screw-capped wines are especially handy for large parties, because they’re easy to open quickly.By Ray Isle
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Screwcaps are best: Decanter verdict
It's official: screwcap is the best closure for the vast majority of wines, both red and white.This is the opinion of Decanter magazine's most senior contributors, from Steven Spurrier to Linda Murphy in California and Huon Hooke in Australia, tastings director Christelle Guibert and restaurant critic Brian St Pierre.
In an article entitled '50 Reasons to Love Screwcaps' in the August issue of the magazine, our wine experts are unequivocal.
CLOSURES: Something in the Air
It wasn't so long ago that closures was the hot topic in the wine industry. But responses to questions on the subject from experts in the field are all similarly dismissive. "Closures all seems a little last year now ... or last decade," remarks technical expert Richard Gibson, director, Scorpex Wine Services. And Kiwi winemaker Michael Brajkovich reports: "The New Zealand Screwcap Initiative has had very little activity over the last year, and the emphasis will now be on the International Screwcap Initiative, although there has been very little activity there of late."So how is it that a topic that used to get people's blood boiling has now become so uncontroversial as to no longer be newsworthy? There are several potential explanations. First, the debate has moved away from the issue of taint - it's widely accepted that natural cork carries with it a certain risk. "I think there is a greater understanding of closure risks and benefits," says Gibson. Instead, the current key debate is about oxygen transmission levels, and how these might effect wine development, which is quite technical and less inflammatory. Second, there is now much more familiarity with and acceptance of alternative closures generally. Third, people might just have become bored with the whole topic - after all, a lot has been written about it.
But this closures apathy doesn't mean that it isn't still a vital issue for the wine business; nor does it mean that there isn't any progress. This brief review is an attempt to characterise the current state of play.
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