Re Glass 'corks'

[Jenise]

Last weekend I had my second glass stopper in two weeks (in the Oregon Solena), and the other was my very first ever. I'd forgotten that I knew such things existed. My paucity of experience suggests they're not in wide-spread use, so I'm wondering what the verdict is/was on them, and if anyone's still using them.

They are stylish but expensive, so I don't think they will catch on very well. But two producers I like very much, Perusini and Heinrich, use them in some their wines so I see them regularly.

One other issue I have heard on why some producers are reluctant to use them is the same that is repeated about all alternative closures: not enough data on how wines age under them.

Note that the seal is plastic. The glass bit just holds the seal against the top of the bottle. I haven't seen any studies, but I woul presume that screwcaps are better as the seal is more engineered - three or so layers of different materials. On the positive side, the glass must protect the seal better than most screwcaps.

I have some German Riesling with the apothecary stopper (full glass). They work great for saving partial bottles.

[Robin Garr]

I dug into them sufficiently to write a few paragraphs a couple of years ago. The Vino-Lok model, at least, is a joint venture of Alcoa Aluminum and the German government:

Cork, screw cap, glass stopper?

Karl Steininger uses them for some of his higher-level Gruner Veltliners, like the "Steven Holl." Don't know anything about their long-term performance, but they're kinda cool.

I've had a few Reuscher-Haart wines from MSR which used this closure. They were fine, although too young to properly assess the long term performance. They do have a definite aesthetic advantage over a screwcap, but since the seal is actually made by a thin plastic membrane (as Steve points out above), I imagine their performace will be similar. That is to say, good.

Tonight I'm sipping on an '05 Treleaven Dry Riesling from the Finger Lakes, opened because I was wary of keeping it much longer with a fake cork closure. The wine is delightful and not overly oxidized at all; it is just hard to tell with these closures if one year or ten is safe.

They look good and are likely therefore to be more acceptable to European consumers than the vulgar screwcap. The suspect part is the plastic seal though I note from Robin's link that this is not supposed to be in contact with the wine. Time is needed to see how they perform with ageing.

Interestingly, the glass stoppers are catching on in the Middle East and are now in use by two Israel and two Lebanese wineries. Only for young whites or rose wines, however, and those meant to be consumed quite early after release.

Also, once sterilized, the bottles with their stoppers make for fine short-term storage for olive oil (often purchased in the two countries in quite large quantities in specially made tin containers, the interior of which coated with epoxy, and meant to be poured into smaller bottles for everyday use.

Best
Rogov

[Jenise]

They look good and are likely therefore to be more acceptable to European consumers than the vulgar screwcap. The suspect part is the plastic seal though I note from Robin's link that this is not supposed to be in contact with the wine. Time is needed to see how they perform with ageing.

The all seal--important detail. I mentioned that we had our first two glass stoppers about two weeks apart? Well, after we opened the first but before we stumbled across the second, I found this clear little plastic ring on the den carpet and wondered what it was. Bob didn't know either, but our suspicions immediately turned to some new furniture and there we were with four brand new bar stools upside down and a nearly dismantled three-elevation, 8-chrome-leg modernist coffee table practically dismantled before we gave up trying to figure out where this serious-looking O-ring of plastic came from. It was only when we opened the Solena that we realized its origins.

[David M. Bueker]

I have wines from several producers that use the vino-lok system. Sineann (USA), Solomon (Austria), Kerpen & Reuscher-Haart (Germany). I am planning to keep several bottles of a few to see what happens over time.

Having had all their wines under screwcap at some point, I think Henschke is moving the top few - Edelstone, Cyril, Hill of Grace - over to glass stoppers. I imagine they feel they just add the extra touch of class (HoG is around A$600 on release these days, and the others at A$120...)
cheers,
Graeme

I ran into one a month or two back on a bottle from Whitehall Lane.
http://www.whitehalllane.com/our_wine/vino_seal.php
Seems like a good idea to me, though I'm guessing not so cheap!

[Jenise]

Tony, good point. Wonder what the cost is vs. a cork?

Tony, good point. Wonder what the cost is vs. a cork?

As with screwcap, I doubt that the expense is associated with the closure per se. Rather, most of the cost is likely to be in the retooling of the bottling line to accommodate the new closure and neck.

Mark Lipton

Whitehall Lane in Napa uses them too in their high end cabs. The seal is also the rubber o-ring so I've never really aged these bottles popping them within the year generally. I have one 2003 (first year of their glass cork) that I said I would leave for a while to try out.

[David M. Bueker]

It's not rubber. I am pretty sure it's the same material that is used as the liner in screwcaps.

We first ran into glass in Austria. My impression was that it wasn't common but not unusual either.

Vino-Lok is sealed with ELVAX
http://www.vino-lok.de/index.php?id=4&L=1 (see "detail screen")
ELVAX is a Dupont trademark for an ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer resin
http://www2.dupont.com/Elvax/en_US/prod ... index.html

Stelvin seals consist of layers of different materials - polyethylene, PVDC, tin and white kraft (paper?)
http://www.stelvin.com/stelvin-liners_en.html
PVDC (polyvinylidene chloride) is also used in Saran wrap