(TDB) - The cork sector has hailed two new surveys that it claims signal a strong preference for wines closed under natural cork in the US and China, two of the category’s major growth markets.

Analysis by the Cork Quality Council of Wine & Spirits Magazine’s Top 50 Restaurant Brands 2013, which was based on the 10 best-selling wines across 218 US restaurants, found that 90% of the featured brands used cork as their primary closure. The number of wine sealed with cork was 21% higher than the proportion that featured in the listing 10 years ago.

In addition, the CQC notes that the median price for a brand sealed under cork was $80, compared to $51 for those using screw cap and $41 for wines featuring a synthetic closure.

The Portuguese Cork Association (Apcor)-backed campaign 100% Cork added further weight to these results by using Nielsen Tracking Survey data for the US off-trade covering the four weeks to the end of April 2014.

The survey showed that sales of premium wine (defined as those averaging more than $6 per bottle during the last six months) sealed with cork outperformed sales of wine closed with artificial options at all retail price points.

Of the top 100 premium brands, as recorded by Nielsen, the proportion sealed using cork has risen by 36% compared to 2010. As with the on-trade, cork-closed wines also attracted a higher median price tag: $12.87, compared to $8.81 for those sealed using other closures.

“The results from these two national surveys demonstrate why it is in the wineries’ best economic interest to use cork closures,” said Peter Weber, executive director of the Cork Quality Council. “Whether it is in a restaurant or at a retail outlet, wine consumers overwhelmingly and consistently choose wines that are sealed with natural cork.”