Amateur Winemakers of Canada
2002 COMPETITION CLOSURE STUDY
TYPE OF
CLOSURE
Below
Not
Avg
Entries
Gold
Silver
Bronze
Merit
60 - 69
50 - 59
50
Scored
Corked
Score
in numbers
Plastic closure
15
2
1
5
3
2
0
1
1
1
69.9
composite cork
66
6
6
15
21
11
5
1
1
2
72.2
mid-range cork
56
6
8
10
11
12
5
2
2
5
69.3
high quality cork
23
1
7
4
10
1
0
0
0
0
75.5
in percentages
Plastic closure
15
13.3
6.7
33.3
20.0
13.3
0.0
6.7
6.7
6.7
composite cork
66
9.1
9.1
22.7
31.8
16.7
7.6
1.5
1.5
3.0
mid-range cork
56
10.7
14.3
17.9
19.6
21.4
8.9
3.6
3.6
8.9
high quality cork
23
4.3
30.4
17.4
43.5
4.3
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
RESULTS:
Out of 160 identified closures (we ignored crown caps and champagne stoppers)
66 were low-grade composite, 55 were
middle of the road real cork, 23 were very high quality cork
and the other 15 were plastic
closures.
All
but one of the top-quality corks won an award, and there were no corked
bottles.
The plastic closures performed well with 11
of 15 entries winning an award
The mid-range corks had 35 of 56 entries
earn an award, and had 5 of the 8 "cork taint" entries
The composite corks 48 of 66 entries win
an award, and had only 2 "cork taint" Judgements.
Cork
Taint was determined by Larry Paterson scanning all low-scoring entries for
judges
comments
which included musty, corked, corky, wet socks, damp basement or similar.