Glass Wine Corks – What Will They Think of Next
We had to evacuate our beach vacation on Friday and made it through Hurricane Irene last night safely although our power went out this morning. I wanted to follow up from my last post about dinner at Quahog’s Seafood Shack in Stone Harbor, NJ.
With everything from octopus ceviche to barbecued Pacu Pacu fish ribs to a Brazilian version of cioppino called Moqueca on the menu, that is story enough and if you didn’t see it, you can read the post at Dining Out in Stone Harbor.
But that’s not what I want to tell you about today. The real surprise of the night came when the waiter uncorked the bottle of Calera Chardonnay that we’d brought with us and presented us with something that looked a bit like a glass drawer pull. It was actually the “cork!”
Now, I’m familiar with synthetic corks, and I’ve even gotten used to screw tops on nice bottles of wine, but this is the first time I’d ever seen a class cork. I did a little research and it turns out that its official name is Vino Seal, and it’s produced by Alcoa. It first came on the scene in 2003 in Europe, and some American winemakers began using it for some of their wines as early as 2006.
Advantages of a Glass Cork
There are a couple of really nice things about the Vino Seal. For one, it looks a bit like a regular decanter stopper, which is kind of cool. It certainly looks much nicer than a plastic cork or a screw top. Maybe I’m a bit old school, but I really do like natural cork. I also realize that, while natural cork has been in use the longest and is the most accepted wine closure, it is not always the best choice.
Since cork is an agricultural product–the thick, spongy bark taken from a living tree–there are some down sides to its use. For one, sometimes the phenols present in cork can react with the wine, causing cork taint. Wines that are “corked.” In short, mold forms and contaminates the wine. Sometimes the wine can smell or taste like mildew, but other times, the wine just might taste a little. “off.” Regardless, anywhere from 5-10% of wines sealed with natural cork can end up with cork taint.
Since the Vino Seal is made of smooth glass, there is no chance of its interacting with the wine in any way. The seal part of the Vino Seal is achieved with a small O-ring under the lip of the stopper. This creates a hermetic, or air-tight, seal.
Another plus of the Vino Seal is that it is reusable. If for some reason you don’t finish your bottle of wine, just reinsert the stopper into the bottle. The O-ring again creates the seal, and you can finish your bottle the next day. You can’t do that with natural or synthetic corks, because to pull a cork, you have to basically drill a hole all the way through it with your cork screw.
Wines that are sealed with almost any closure other than natural cork do not have to be stored on their sides. Natural cork needs to be kept moist to maintain the tight seal. Store your wine upright for too long, and the cork dries out, shrinks and then there goes your seal. While this is a plus for the Vino Seal, it can also be a minus. The foil that covers the seal and the neck of the bottle helps to maintain the air-tight seal. So, when unopened, you can store the wine either lying down or upright, but once you open the bottle, it is best to keep it upright to prevent any minor leaking.
Overall, I think that the Vino Seal is a pretty elegant solution to wine closure. And while this very cool, classy way to seal wine is still seen primarily in German and South African wines, it is already taking hold here in the United States, with wineries in both Washington State and Napa Valley, California trying out the Vino Seal on some of their wines.
Oh, one more downside of the Vino Seal? You can’t play the cork came where you drop the cork on the table and see who can get it to stand on end in the fewest tries. It’s a small price to pay to end up with such an elegant wine stopper, so maybe I’ll just start carrying an old cork in my pocket, just in case we get the urge to play the cork game.
Have You Come Across A Glass Wine Cork Lately?
I’m interested to know how many of you have see this new type of wine closure and what wines are you finding it on. Please let me know in the comments section.
We came across our first glass cork in a bottle of Bugay Long Stem Rose (Sonoma). It is quite elegant and allowed us to close up the bottle with half remaining with no problem at all. Seems like a great idea finally happening.
2009 Grey Stack Sauv Blanc love it!
I was startled by one in a 2009 Utopia viognier. (Utopia is an amazing small winery in Oregon.) I’m glad I didn’t try to pry it out with a corkscrew! The sound and feel of it is the most elegant alternative to cork.
Nero D’Avalo by Cusumano – The glass stopper was such a nice little surprise and gave us much to talk about.
I was also startled by the glass cork. It took a couple minutes for me to understand what I was trying to uncork! The Bravante Sauvignon Blanc is fabulous and the glass cork makes it even more elegant.
We live in the rhinegau here in Germany (like Napa Ca) and this glass cork is pretty much standard here. I like it because you can close up your unused nectar and drink it tomorrow. It really works well for all the Rieseling we drink… Yum
Anyone know when I can buy these glass corks???
Found my first one today! 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon from Johnson Estate Winery, Westfield NY
What a shock. Found the glass stopper on a bottle of Red Remy Wine from McMinneville, OR. I like the idea of being able to recap the bottle and not loose any of the flavors of the wine.
Yes -we have come across a glass wine top. I honestly dont remember the wine it came from but we reuse the topper on other wines we want to cover. I wish I could remember the wine -good marketing would to have the name etched on the top because I probably would have bought it again. Also, I think it adds a touch of class or richness to the experience of opening a nice bottle of wine.
We don’t drink a lot of wine, but someone gifted me a bottle or Suhr Luchtel cabernet sauv and I decided to save it for Thanksgiving. Imagine my surprise when, after searching the house for my wine “uncorker” (I told you I don’t drink much wine!), I took off the foil and saw something I’d never seen before. A glass cork. What I really liked about it was that I was able to uncork without an opener! And was able to cork it back up to finish the next day. I give the glass cork a “thumbs up”!
Good morning,
I just open a sicilian wine -NERO D’AVENO- with that type of seal.
The wine was also good.
Thank you,
Claude Martimbeau
Came across our first vino seal ever tonight in a bottle of R Stuart 2008 Pinot Noir
There is a vineyard in Virgina, Glass House, that uses the glass cork on all the bottles.
It is quite common here in Austria with Austrian wines! I quite like it personally, and find it a bit more sophisticated than the regular screw top wines without corks.
Cusumano, Nero d’avila, Sicilian…..
Fun … In Vermont and the inn we are staying at gave us a complimentary bottle of wine. So good.
We make wine and beer and never saw this before.
Husband and I just opened a bottle of Cristom Viognier Estate 2007 from Oregon that had a glass cork. We are not frequent wine drinkers, more beer people, but this was lovely and I am pleased to know that we can re-use the cork!
Also in a Sicilian: Cusumano Insolia. Now I’ll be watching for it in the Nero d’Avola we’ll be opening tonight!
Scaia 2013, an Italian wine from Veneto. A beautiful blend of Garganega and Chadonnay.
Invetro Toscana 2010 Italian red wine
I bought the same wine for an event at my home last weekend. How on earth do you uncork the glass cork? I’ve been trying for days with zero success🙁
I have seen a few of these over the years but only on Austrian and European imports, specifically the Salomon Stein Kogl Riesling from Austria. there is an elegant simplicity to these stoppers that I enjoy, and in conjunction with the WINESAVE argon gas they work as an excellent cork substitute for other bottled wines
Oakville Cross Cabernet, one of the many great wines in our portfolio, utilizes the vino seal.
I am sure the glass stopper is sufficient to cork a bottle of wine, but vineyards need to consider packaging when shipping glass corked bottles.
My summer allocation from R Sinskey Vineyards came yesterday, and one of the bottles was leaking. This was most likely due to a combination of factors: 1) molded paper shipping spacers, and 2) transport. It appears as though handling from the shipper (FedEx in this case) between the dock, truck and my doorstep was enough to ‘bump’ the cork, breaking the seal.
If a vineyard is to use this technology and ship wine to their members, one should consider styrofoam shipping cradles to firmly secure the bottle in the shipping box.
Cheers!
just opened a wine we bought in Castell Miquel in Mallorca and it has a glass cork, wonderful idea..
Encountered my first glass “cork” this evening in Cusumano Nero D’Avola 2012, an Italian red imported by Terlato Wines.
Gay, they are very cool the first time you come across one.
Not sure how to open it, so I’m scanning this thread for the secret. Terrified I’ll break it. Gerard Bertrand Rose, in a lovely rose-shaped bottle. (Yes, I bought it for the a bottle, hope we like the wine.)
Hi Grace, just twist it off should work.
I found one in Cusumano Syrah…what a fun surprise it was. I’m trying to think of fun ways to reuse those fun corks.
Besides in some work of art, I’m wondering what to do with mine too.
I am learning to facet gemstones. I use these glass corks for practice. They make beautiful “gems” and I have set a couple, which I wear.
Betty, that is very cool. Send me a photo if you don’t mind. I would love to see how they look.
I reuse mine in other bottles. So far they have been very sturdy when I drop them, non have broken yet. I also keep several in a drawer and give them to my friends when they come over for wine.
I’m reusing my bottles and stoppers to make flavored vinegars for gifts..
Great idea Misty. Thanks for sharing.
I just found my first wine cork in an Italian wine from Veneto, which is a nice, smooth medium bodied wine: Tenuta Sant’Antonio Scaia Corvina 2013
Bought a bottle of Gerard Bertrand Cote des Roses at Costo. BEEEAUtiful bottle & product. Wine wasn’t bad, as it turned out, either. We just put together 60 gallons of rose and I thought the bottling in ‘this’ bottle would be outstanding. It’s just gorgeous. However, the only item I can locate is ‘the cork,’ in this case a glass cork. I like the idea, as it gets away from synthetic/short term/long term, 3 different corking machines, and so on. If you’ve a lead on the bottle (which has a rose embedded in the bottom) I would really like to hear where it might be purchased.
thanks
franklin
Tonight I opened a lovely 2014 Chateau De Fabregues Grenache/Syrah blend Rose from the Rhone region of France. To my delight it had a glass cork! I only read of them in my Certified Wine Professional studies.
Nice surprise! Love it!
Been drinking wine for years and finally saw one with a glass cork. Seems superior and classier to any of the alternatives, even cork, given the silicone is of high quality.
Now why not go to 100% glass on glass fittings, as in scientific glass equipment? This would enable the wine to age in a 100% glass environment with no exposure to plastics, cork, silicone, or other agents which will, invariably, on some scale alter the taste.
On a wine-tasting in SE France, off a river cruise, the bottles had glass corks. They gave the corks they used to us! I wish I’d gotten dozens! I love using them to re-cork wine. It lets the bottles stand upright in my refrigerator door shelf. Sorry I don’t remember the name, Chateau “something” I think. I’m going to try to buy some.
Just ran into the glass wine stopper at Remy Wine in the Williamette Valley of Oregon. Good choice. Much more elegant than the screw top. Fine wine as well.
Just opened our Red Remy wine from McMinnville, OR (Willamette Valley) and voila’…. a glass cork!! Love it!!
Folin Cellars outside Medford Oregon uses them. They’re really classy.
That being said, I want to find a way to reuse a few of them. They’re so unique, I thought it would be cool to make something out of them for a wine gala fund raiser. Any ideas?
Thanx
I agree Tina, it would be great to know how to reuse them. I’m sure someone with more artistic talents than I have could come up with a unique art piece.
I discovered my first one last night when opening a bottle of 2015 Scaia Corvina (Familigia Castagnedi). I like the fact that it makes the bottle resealable, and I am going to save it to reclose other wine bottles that are regularly corked. It’s was a delightful discovery – an ingenious alternative to corks, which sometimes crumble or split, and screw tops.
They are fun to look at too.
I just came across my first one in a 2005 Surh Luchtel Syrah (Napa)
They are so cool when you find one.
We were given a bottle of Heinrich Zweigelt 2015 for Christmas and when I removed the foil I was surprised to find a glass cork! That was so cool, but how do I safely remove the cork? (At least I was smart enough not to use my corkscrew!)
Hi Karen, lucky you to find a glass cork. I don’t see them often but smile when I get one. Just pull it out like you would with a cork stopper on a bottle of good bourbon.
I first saw this last weekend in a bottle of Sicilian “Cusumano Nero D’Avola” my bottle resealed wonderfully and I re-stored it in my wine Frig to maintain temperature. Nothing leaked and in fact, it was like re-opening the bottle to serve the remaining wine 3 days later. Flavor was maintained fairly well considering there is air in the bottle. Would love to see these used more often- Nd could they be recycled for re-use?
I have 170 glass corks for wine bottles. How can I sell them?
We came across our first glass cork (that’s why I’m here!) on an Italian wine- Invetro (in vetro means “in glass”, Invetro may just be a name) Renieri, red wine. It states Geografica Tipica, but no region!? Only Red Wine Product of Italy. Hope this is useful info for you.
I’ve been looking for a couple of glass corks for ages. Do you know where I can find one?
I would go to your liquor store and ask if they know of any wines they sell with glass corks. You might also try searching google for “wines with glass corks” and then go purchase a few bottles.
I too am having difficulty removing the glass cork due to arthritic fingers! No luck with this Hampton Water Rose’.. K
Hi Kathie, I wonder if you purchase one of those gadgets to help open bottles. That may help with your Hampton Water Rose.
My sister gave me a bottle of Scaia Garganega/Chardonnay and I put the corkscrew right back in the drawer! Pretty cool!
Those glass wine corks are soooo cool!
Scandalous One, Cabernet Noir, Product of France. What a pleasant surprise this beautiful black glass cork. Love it.
Hi Anita, I have not seen a black glass cork yet. Thanks for sharing.
I just opened a bottle of Heinrich Zweigelt 2017 and it has a beautiful glass cork! Wonderful wine with the added stopper! A must try for anyone!
Aren’t they fun to find?