We received a news release this week from Nomacorc regarding their Select Series closures, "tailored to meet the unique needs of artisan winemakers and their premium wines." The release marked sales of more than 100 million units since the line was introduced a year or so ago. That figure may or may not sound like much. I wasn't phased given that Nomacorc basicially IS the synthetic closure industry at this point - It didn't seem like a big deal: As the release notes, they sold 2.4 billion units last year.

I was speaking with Nomacorc sales manager Mark Coleman during the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium, though, and he said the average bottle price for wines outfitted with the Select Series is $22. That was a surprise. I don't usually associate synthetic closures with higher priced wines.

Here, by the way, is an interesting slide from a company marketing presentation showing the evolution of the closure market in terms of share since 1999.