# Wax and/or Shrink Cap



## horric29 (Oct 17, 2008)

Quick question for everyone out there,
Has anyone ever seen a bottle that contained both a wax seal above the cork with a monogram and a shrink cap on top of it all? My wife swears it would be a good idea, I'm just not sure how to go about it or if anyone has ever seen it done. She says I should put a monogram of H, the first letter of our last name in wax on top of the cork and then cover with a shrink cap.


Anyone seen this done? Anyone do it? Tips? Or is it just a bad idea?


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## Waldo (Oct 17, 2008)

I would do, "Either --Or" but not both.


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## horric29 (Oct 17, 2008)

Yea, that's what I thought... I thought one or the other... She swears that she's seen it done... I don't think I'm about to waste my ice wine bottles trying it... LOL


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## jobe05 (Oct 18, 2008)

I have seen both done around here. It's just a couple of drops of wax on the top of the shrink wrap to put a monogram. I tried it once using a small square monogrammed tie pin. I could never get the wax to stick to the top of the cap so I never tried it again. It does look good when you use a black wax on a black wrapper...... hides all the little imperfections.


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## PeterZ (Oct 20, 2008)

If you put the wax on the cork and then put the shrink over it, I would think the wax would remelt when you dipped the shrink into boiling water to shrink it.


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## Mark (Oct 22, 2008)

I thoughtthe reasons for a cap (either wax or shrink) were to keep the top of the bottle clean and to look good.If that's true, then doing both is overkill while the shrink hides that cool-looking monogrammed wax seal.


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## grapeman (Oct 22, 2008)

OK so I will go another route here. Using bottles and corks let's a bottle of wine get a bit of oxygen to it- can be a good thing- it's called micro-oxygenation. It let's a wine age well and can overcome some shortcomings of wines. If you use wax over the cork directly, you seal up all chances for any oxygen to get in even in minute amounts. I don't think I would do it.......


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## Wade E (Oct 22, 2008)

IMO, if you have good cellar conditions then not waxing is the way to go if you want to keep these for many years as like Appleman said it will benefit from this micro-oxy, but if you do not have good cellar conditions then the wine will benefit from the wax as it will preveny premature oxidation form constant temp changes.


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## jobe05 (Oct 22, 2008)

What I was talking about in my post was a dab of wax ON THE OUTSIDE of the shrink cap, hence the words "on the top of the shrink wrap" . Just enough for a monogram impression. I guess everyone has their own theories though.............


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## grapeman (Oct 22, 2008)

We get what you are saying jobe and yes that might work but like you say could be hard to do, but horric specifically asked about the cork, then wax, then shrink. That might seal it a bit too much.


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## jobe05 (Oct 22, 2008)

appleman said:


> We get what you are saying jobe and yes that might work but like you say could be hard to do, but horric specifically asked about the cork, then wax, then shrink. That might seal it a bit too much.



AHhh... I get it..... Yea, I waxed a batch once to see if it would be better quicker cleaner............ it was none of those. Couldn't imagine shrinking over the wax....


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## Mark (Oct 23, 2008)

Wade and Appleman... that actually makes perfect sense. Guess there's a reason for everything!


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