Most UK wine drinkers are happy to buy wines with screwcaps now – with acceptance rates more than doubling over the past eight years, according to wine research organisation Wine Intelligence.

The company's Closures Report 2011 estimates that acceptance of screwcapped wines has risen to 85% of the regular wine drinking population, compared to a 41% acceptance rate in 2003, when the issue was first surveyed.

Over the same period, the proportion of consumers who actively like buying wine with a screwcap has hit 42%, still behind cork at 51% but well up on 2003's figure of only 6%.

Wine Intelligence reports that female wine drinkers in their late 30s and early 40s are the biggest drivers of the screwcap trend, along with younger drinkers who are new to the wine category.

'This year’s consumer view on closures suggests that the UK has fundamentally changed over the past eight years,' said Richard Halstead, report author and Wine Intelligence COO.

'From a market that was actively sceptical – in some cases hostile – towards screwcaps, we now have a situation where they are the norm rather than the exception.'

News item from Imbibe.com, 18-11-2011 (updated 21-11-2011)