Monday, October 26, 2009

Vino-seal.

There is an ongoing, didactic discourse on certain wine blogs about which is the best closure for wine. It is an interesting topic, but sometimes the preachiness of it all gets a little tiresome. A screw cap can be a perfectly acceptable closure for a wine that you do not intend to age. Some proponents of the use of nothing but all natural cork are reaching ridiculous heights of brinkmanship, e.g. the folks at Celani Family Vineyards who feel the need to apprise the consumer of the exact size, to the closest millimetre, of the cork that bungs up their Cabernet sauvignon. I generally care more about what is in my glass, not how it manages to stay in the bottle.
One of the wines Vinomaker, I and everyone else drank after the christening, a week last Sunday, was a tasty offering from Sicily. It didn't really matter what the grape varietal was, we were all so enamoured with the Vino-seal closure that the contents of the bottle became secondary. Small things amuse...

7 comments:

Do Bianchi said...

Etienne de Montille showed me a new type of organic cork that is made from bits of recycled cork. It is then blasted at high pressure with C02: he said that the CO2 blast kills any bacteria in the cork and that he's had not one "corked" bottle so far. He's only using it for short-term again bottles, though. Interesting... Vinogirl: what do you call the stuff they use to spray corks before they are inserted? It is used to make the corks not stick to the bottle neck. I can't remember the name!

Thanks again for the kind words and thoughts over at Do Bianchi. I always enjoy reading Vinsanity.

P.S. who was the producer of the Nero d'Avola?

Thud said...

My small mind was well amused.

monkey said...

thats a bobby dazzler, im intrigued.

Weston said...

Cork or Screwcap, but no Plastic Cap please thanks ~ ^_^

Vinogirl said...

DB, I know the cork industry uses emulsified paraffin, or silicone, to guarantee a good seal and ensure graceful extraction, but I do not know of any brand names.

Thud & Monkey: it is at once simple and complicated.

Weston: I don't mind a synthetic cork on a Sauvignon blanc etc., but a plastic cap like a Pespi bottle? Never!

The Wine Mule said...

The Vino-Lok glass stopper is very big among Austrian producers (Karl Steininger uses it, and so does Weingut Michlitz). We have some Calera wines from Josh Jensen that have them, too. Customers think they're pretty cool because they're reusable. "When the bottle is empty I put olive oil in it..." etc.

Vinogirl said...

WineMule: Thanks for the olive oil tip...and for visiting Vinsanity.