Vino-Lok

That thing up there is what I'm blogging on today. I know it kinda looks like a glass pacifier or something, but this little thing made me so excited last night! So, what is it, you ask? It's called the Vino-Lok, made by Alcoa, and it's a glass wine closure. It's made out of all glass except for plastic around the ring that helps seal the bottle. Production of them started in 2003 and they really haven't caught on in the wine world. I have never seen one on a bottle before and it was really fun to find one. The claim is that they will help protect the wine from air and also add no extra flavors like a synthetic cork might do.

Everyone is trying to find a "better" closure than natural cork because of the "corkage" problem. Depending on who you ask, anywhere from 1% - 10% of wines are "corked" because of improper harvesting, production, or cleaning of the cork, resulting in the release of the chemical TCA. This is no good because you spend all this money on a bottle of wine and then open it and it's all ruined. It's like sticking a bottle of wine in your super-hot trunk and ruining it, only it's not your fault. So scientists are trying to create a better closure that won't have the TCA problem. Except that no-one has been able to recreate the specific properties of natural cork, namely that as a wine ages most of the air is kept out, but a very little bit leaks through the cork's pores and allows for proper aging of wine. So if you're going to be drinking your wine within the next year (90% of the world's wine is consumed within 12 months of purchase) than it's worth not risking the corkage and using a synthetic cork or screwcap or Vino-Lok. But if you are making a fine wine that deserves to be aged, then natural cork is the way to go.

Honestly, I'm a classical kind of girl with this. I love the feeling of popping a cork in a wine bottle, and though the Vino-Lok is better than a synthetic or a screwcap, it's still not classic, and I'm just prejudiced towards real cork. I was super excited to see one on a bottle, and it was cool and pretty, but nothing beats real cork for me.

The way I've learned any of this has been through the book To Cork or Not to Cork by Geroge M Taber. He also wrote The Judgment of Paris, which is the book the recent movie Bottle Shock was based on. Both books are really interesting and really well-researched. I've learned tons just through these two books. What made last night even more fun is that I had just picked up To Cork or Not to Cork at the library yesterday as a good re-read. So I got the book that taught me about corks and other closures and then I find one of those other closure in the same day! Fun!