My latest invention!

If I’ve figured out how to add an image, we are looking at my latest invention, the Nekker. Its a sleeve that fits over the rather unappealing neck of an opened screw cap bottle. It covers the thread and the cut edge of the metal skirt and, I hope, makes it more acceptable at the table. The prototype is plastic, I see production models in stainless steel, chrome and sterling silver.
Do you think it will fly?

I don’t see any wings?

Can you send us some prototypes for testing in our tasting room? We find that the Haley’s Corker spouts we are using are a smidge too skinny to seal a screwcap bottle…

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We use the Haley’s corkers too and they are too small for about half of the screw cap bottles.

Roberto and Randy,

Sorry, the Nekker is not a pourer, nor a stopper. It’s function is to enhance the appearance of the screw cap bottle at the point of use. Where you have a sophisticated or intimate ambiance, sparkling glasses, crisp table cloth and so on you don’t want to spoil it by introducing the industrial look of a screw cap wine bottle. It would be like having a wine waiter with dirty finger nails or a host with b.o.!

It’s like a hub cap for wine bottles; it serves no other purpose than to cover up all that inappropriate industrial stuff.

How hard would it be to turn it into a pourer? Probably not too hard, and I can see a lot more potential customers this way.

It can incorporate a pourer quite easily; it can incorporate a drip collar and it can be used in conjuction with a stopper. But the Nekker is very specifically patented to be a disguise for the threaded portion of a screw thread bottle.
The other components - pourer, drip collar, stopper - are used on cork closed bottles too and are in common use already.

So, it hides the “industrial look” till you have to take it off an pour the wine?

No, no no, Roberto! The whole point is that it is used on an opened screw cap bottle, in order to disguise the industrial look whilst you are enjoying the wine. You fit the Nekker to the opened bottle at the point of serving.
This idea came about because more and more wines are closed under screw caps and one of the main objections to such wines is that they spoil the ambience of the wine drinking moment. I suppose if you are a wino knocking back mad dog 50/50 under a highway bridge you don’t care too much about how the bottle looks. But if you invite people to your home and serve a Jacobs Creek Shiraz Cabernet, or some of the fine wines now sold under screw cap, you would prefer the bottle to maintain a modicum of decorum.
Some guests had commented to me that, whilst the wine tasted fine, the bottle looked, to use an English expression, naff. Over the next few days I made the prototype Nekker and the following week used it at a dinner party. The guests loved it and encouraged me to patent it and then take it to market.
I am just looking for feedback on the idea. Various wine journalists have expressed interest, as have a couple of wine producers. I thank you for taking the trouble to contribute.

Randy, Haley’s tells me that they have a slightly fatter version now (in green to differentiate it) for screw cap bottles.

John,

Not sure about market demand for this (note, i’m not ITB). Some people will simply pop and pour from the screwcapped bottle as they do now. For those who care about aesthetics, they can decant the wine into, well, a decanter. Aesthetic issue solved. So your potential market is 1) people who buy screwcapped wines and 2) care about aesthetics and 3) don’t want to decant the wine into a nice decanter (or don’t own a decanter).

[swearing.gif] another useless stocking stuffer bought by non wine geeks for wine geeks!!!

Rick,

Quite right. That’s the market. But, more and more good wines are under screw cap, wine drinkers do tend to try for an appealing ambience and not everyone decants. So, there is a market but the size of that market is very difficult to determine.

+1

John- my 0.02 is that is that if this is just for looks, you aren’t actually solving a real problem, hence there is no point.

If you were to solve problems that people have mentioned above (drips, stopping up, etc) PLUS make it purty- then you might have something.

Well, that was kind of my point. IS there, in fact, a market? Your potential market is this:

All wine purchases - wines sealed in cork - cheap wines - wines bought by people who don’t care about looks - wines decanted.

Personally, given that I already own a decanter or 4, if I cared about the looks I’d decant. To Scott’s point, I’m not sure you solve enough of a problem.

pretty much echoing others’ thoughts here: I don’t perceive much of a market for this product.

People who buy a wine thermometer will probably also buy this screw cap condom.

I think thread shows that the market for this product is not on this board. That doesn’t mean there isn’t one. I can see lots of people who would prefer no one notice that a good wine was closed with a screwcap.

John, you might even see if a winery or distributor would want to do some kind of give away along with a purchase of a particular wine.

Thanks to everyone for their comments, I appreciate the feedback and the opportunity to get a broader view.

The market is very specific, as several have pointed out. First off, it only applies to screw cap bottles - 2 billion of those last year. In Oz, NZ and UK a high percentage of wine is under screw cap, in the US much less and meeting with more resistance. Even two buck chuck is under cork!

Another useless stocking stuffer! Mia culpa.

Decoration is a legitimate reason for a product to exist - jewellry, some items of clothing, hub caps and a myriad other products exist for no other reason than to disguise or enhance appearance. They don’t actually do anything - like neckties.

I realise that the market is not with the fine wine aficionados.

The disposable Nekker applied by the producer has attracted interest already. I think that’s a no-brainer - very low cost to provide customers with the option to hide the screw top if they so wish. Giving customers choice is always a good thing.

Thanks again for your comments and expert opinion.