“While there is much propaganda in the wine market about the belief that alternative closures are associated with lower-quality wines, we wanted to see evidence of such widely spread assumptions through an unbiased research method,” explains Dr. Stephane Vidal, Vice President of Brand Management and Enology at Vinventions.
So, Vinventions contracted with Mind Insights, a unit of Louvain University in Belgium. Consumers were presented an entry-level synthetic closure, a Nomacorc Reserva closure and premium natural cork and their unconscious responses were analyzed,” Vidal said.
“Once limitations and biases were eliminated, consumers did not associate Nomacorc PlantCorc closures with low-quality wines. On a scale from 0 to 100 of premium/luxury awareness, they ranked it to be at 87 points,” he notes. This result is even more remarkable as the presented Reserva closure is three-times less expensive than the premium natural cork used in the study.
“This result shows how these widespread assumptions about consumers’ perceptions are questioned when tested with scientific research methods. Mind Insights’ methods avoid self-report measures, in which consumers are explicitly asked to express their beliefs, or distorting consumers’ deliberate responses through social pressure and desirability effects,” says Romain Thomas, Wine Marketing Solutions Brand Manager at Vinventions.
“The tendency to answer questions in a manner that respondents believe is expected or will be viewed favorably misleads results,” he adds. As a result, the research showed that most consumers associate Nomacorc PlantCorcs with high-end and luxury wines.
Reserva, the Nomacorc closure used in the research, is a bio-based PlantCorc closure made from renewable plant-based materials. Nomacorc PlantCorc closures are completely TCA-taint-free, offer bottle-to-bottle consistency with no breakage, and controlled oxygen transmission rates (OTRs) for luxury wines with extensive aging times. Thanks to the latest PlantCorc innovations, the Nomacorc closures by Vinventions have already attracted some of the most qualitative and iconic wineries around the world.