An aluminium cap for wine bottles, designed to compete against traditional corks, has hit the market after more than three years in development by ACI Glass Packaging.
ACI, now owned by United States…
An aluminium cap for wine bottles, designed to compete against traditional corks, has hit the market after more than three years in development by ACI Glass Packaging. ACI, now owned by United States giant Owens-Illinois, has a worldwide patent pending on the new “twist and pull” aluminium cap, which has been developed in conjunction with Australia“s largest wine group, Southcorp Wines. The US$ 2.5-billion Australian wine industry and its overseas counterparts continue to grapple with the problem of cork taint, which spoils an estimated 3-5% of bottled wines. The problem, which is only discovered when the wine is opened, has led to the development of a series of non-cork closures, such as synthetic closures made from plastic and the Stelvin metal screw cap. ACI“s aluminium closure is being marketed under the brand name sureOvin. Southcorp Wines has exclusive use of the product until 1 June this year, when it will become available to all wine companies. The first commercial production run of the sureOvin cap was undertaken by ACI last month and the product was officially unveiled in Melbourne last night. The aluminium cap is not resealable and the closure is therefore being targeted at wines offered in restaurants, airlines, bars and clubs. ACI Glass Packaging“s general manager, Rob Barnett, said that the closure had been developed in response to demand from the wine industry. Wine bottles using the product could be opened without using a corkscrew or other implement. The height of wine bottles using the new system would increase by 0.5 millimetres. ACI produces more than 90% of the wine bottles used by Australian and NZ wine companies, in a total market of more than 700 million wine bottles.