This year's Closure Debate at the London International Wine Fair, sponsored by Oeneo Closures, was a snoozer compared to last year.

In the 2008 program, the representatives of the different closure systems nearly came to fisticuffs over closure differences. Now that was fun!

The 2009 seminar was very tame and polite.

Wine writer Jamie Goode moderated a (mostly Australian-born) panel of winemakers about closure types and preferences. John Stichburg from New Zealand-based Jackson Estates is a founding member of the New Zealand Screwcap Initiative; Peter Bright is a consulting winemaker in Portugal, South Africa and Chile; John Worontschak is a partner in Litmus Wines and serves as a consultant in Israel, Russia and many other wineries around the world; and Linley Schulz is the winemaker at South African giant Distell.

Goode began by musing, "Is the closure debate dead? Can we say much more about it?"

He then asked. "Is there a place for cork?"

Stichburg said, rather amazingly, "Each closure works in different ways. Cork has its place in some wineries. The styles of wine we make are more suited to screw cap."

Bright said, "We use cork in the Port market where there is a total rejection of screw cap. In other countries, we use screw cap. Cork has only been used starting in the 19th century. It's an emotional issue. The future is in screw cap."

Worontschak claimed there were technical issues with both. He went on: "To say screw caps are the future is odd. The chemistry is not yet well enough understood."

Schulz next chimed in: "We offer many products: bag-in-box, screw cap liters. Up until five years ago, we were all cork. We offer a screw cap option, but our customers are reluctant to switch to screw cap. We also use DIAM, Nomacorc and other products. A big range will go into screw cap this year."

Goode next asked, "Are you happy with the options? What would you like to see?"

Schulz spoke first. "The issues are in headspace. Bottle Shape. Packaging. We want a neutral closure--no scalping. DIAM is a good product for us; we don't know what the wine will look like in 15 years."

Worontschak said he agreed with Schulz, adding, "Synthetics are not the future. DIAM is okay; I would prefer to have it look like a real cork."

Stichburg asserted that there are very clear issues. "With screw caps, things are better now; each seal is getting better perfected to the shape of the bottle."

Goode stated that screw cap reduction was a controversial issue. Rather than take that on, the panel discussed the need for a long-term solution that would customize the oxygen transfer rate (OTR) and provide an option for low OTR, moderate OTR and high OTR, depending on the wine style and aging desired by the winemaker. wbm

--Lisa Shara Hall