It's the real thing.

Cork, that is.  Or, to be exact, composite corks.
Today was a bottling day in Vinoland.  The St. Helena Sots arrived bright and early and the clone 7 Cabernet sauvignon was unbarreled, bottled and corked in the blink of an eye.  At least I think it was.  I was away running errands, (too many cooks blah, blah), and buying some victuals for the after-party.  Fun!
The cork of choice for this bottling event was a disc-cork.  A disc-cork has a solid, natural cork disc on each end with a conglomerate of natural, squished cork in between.  Disc-corks are an inexpensive option for corking wines that are meant to be consumed within three years. What, three years?  Believe me, this wine will last no where near three years around the St. Helena Sots.  Tee-hee!
Speaking of natural cork...I have been getting a butt load (technical term) of emails recently from folks requesting that I post this and that on my blog.  I read some of them, but I generally just delete them.  One recent email, that did catch my eye, was about the resurgence of natural cork as the preferred bottle closure amongst wine-consumers.  The aim of the email was to educate me about the high percentage of  "quality" wines on the planet that employ natural cork, versus those that use cork alternatives (and the consumer's preference for natural cork over synthetics and screw-caps).   As to be expected, perhaps, the email was from, for want of a better word, a lobbyist for the cork industry.  That's alright, I tend to prefer natural cork myself...except when the wine in question is a fun, young white (think a Vinho Verde), and then screw-caps are the perfect closure.  No corkscrew necessary!