Glass wine corks

[pjd]

Today my wife and I traveled to Walkers in Forestville NY to buy some juice. On the way back to Pennsylvania we stopped at several New York winerys. I bought a couple of bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon from Johnson Estate Winery in Westfield NY. I opened one tonight and it has a glass stopper for its cork! A little research revealed that it is called Vino Seal. I had never seen one before. It is pretty neat!

 

[Runningwolf]

Today my wife and I traveled to Walkers in Forestville NY to buy some juice. On the way back to Pennsylvania we stopped at several New York winerys. I bought a couple of bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon from Johnson Estate Winery in Westfield NY. I opened one tonight and it has a glass stopper for its cork! A little research revealed that it is called Vino Seal. I had never seen one before. It is pretty neat!

Yup, they do use them there. Did you stop at 21 brix? What did you get at Walkers.

 

[pjd]

Yup, they do use them there. Did you stop at 21 brix? What did you get at Walkers.

Yes we stopped at 21 brix, bought a bottle of cherry wine. Talked to the winemaker at PI wines moonlighting at 21 brix.
Picked up Catawba, Lambrusca Blend, Isabella-Blackberry and Cherry, 6 gal each.

 

[Runningwolf]

Yes we stopped at 21 brix, bought a bottle of cherry wine. Talked to the winemaker at PI wines moonlighting at 21 brix.
Picked up Catawba, Lambrusca Blend, Isabella-Blackberry and Cherry, 6 gal each.

Moonlighting? Is that what Kris told you? He owns 21 Brix! His family owns the vineyards around the winery including the cherry trees and asparagus. Thats a beautiful winery.

 

[TonyP]

I heard of Vino-Seal a few years ago but have never seen one. As far as I can determine, it's only available in Europe. Is it reusable?

Tony P.

 

[pjd]

I heard of Vino-Seal a few years ago but have never seen one. As far as I can determine, it's only available in Europe. Is it reusable?

Tony P.

They look like they would be re-usable, certainly for short term use like a tasting cork. I really like it. they used a clear shrink capsule and I could not quite figure out the closure untill i opened it. Very elegant!

 

[Dugger]

I remember a long time ago glass closures were used on Bristol Cream Sherry, which also had a cut glass bottle, but haven't seen anything similar. They had a rubber/plastic washer incorporated as I recall.

 

[JohnT]

Glass stoppers - This came out during that time where TCA (cork taint) was almost epidemic and wineries were scrambling to find an alternate.

There were three challengers to cork, Screw Caps, Synthetic Cork, and glass stoppers. Of the three, the glass stoppers proved to be the most impractical and never really had a chance to gain a foothold in the wine world.

The problem was that they were made of glass. Not a very good material to be using around heavy, fast moving bottling lines. Glass is not soft or forgiving like cork, synthetic cork, or even a metal screwcap (when it comes to impacts). Additionally, since glass required so much heat and cooling time, the manufacturing costs could not compete with the process of making screwcaps (stamping) or synthetic corks (extrusion).

So, it is a real novelty or gimmick today. I would not expect to see a whole lot of them gowing forward.