Amorim tests cork that can be opened with bare hands

Speaking at a press conference where Amorim presented the results of a new lifecycle analysis comparing cork closures with their metal and plastic rivals, Miguel Cabral, Amorim head of research and development, said: “We want corks to have the simplicity that screwcaps have brought to wine stoppers.”

Few details of how the closure would work have been made public, although Cabral said that the concept had been in development for two years and had already been presented to wine producers.

Amorim marketing director Carlos de Jesus hinted that the concept was likely to be more appropriate for the lower end of the wine market, where screw caps and plastic stoppers are more prevalent.

He said: “We need to test it and see if there’s a market for it. It would be aimed at a very specific and well-defined price point.”

News of the development came as Amorim presented the findings of research which shows that cork wine stoppers have a lower carbon footprint than either aluminium screw-caps or plastic stoppers.

The lifecycle analysis, carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers, claimed that the production, transport and disposal of aluminium stoppers produced more than 24 times more greenhouse gases than cork stoppers, while plastic stoppers produced almost 10 times more than cork.

Cork stoppers were found to have the best environmental performance in a number of areas, including energy consumption, atmospheric acidification and production of solid waste.

However, it was not all bad news for screw-caps; aluminium stoppers came out on top in terms of water consumption, using just over half the amount of water of corks and a third that of plastic stoppers.

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