Go naked with your branded cork.
You didn’t ask but screwcaps are fine too.
Is this yet another thread about circumcision? ![[soap.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/a/a7ea1fffd3ef237e8f19d17a83270ad8452218ca.gif "soap"){kind=small}
But seriously, I don’t really care that much about foil/no foil on the wine bottle. I wouldn’t avoid buying a new release of wine merely because it lacked a capsule.
Bruce
I don’t care ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
I help out with bottling for quite a few producers in San Francisco and the East Bay and I’ve seen more of them go without capsules for some or all of their wines in the past few years. I’m all in favor of that.
I guess I’m in the minority but I hate bottles w/out a capsule. Just the idea that hundreds of people may have have touched it bothers me.
I don’t care so much about the capsules, although the Ridge method of a short one so people can observe the cork is nice. I’m much rather have something other than primitive cork sealing up wines in general. We don’t use clay amphorae anymore…
No capsule, no wax. Both are a total waste.
Loved the X on the 2008 from the B-day order, but loved the wine more!
Ditto.
Thanks John for bringing this up. I’m thinking the same thing. Foils are a total waste and cost serious $$. This thread is bringing me closer to making the leap.
Go for it, Vincent. Especially if it’ll save me a dime on the next bottle that I purchase from you. (every little bit helps) 
I personally like to see the cork, and be able to determine whether the wine has oozed up to a level where oxygen could pose a threat.
Agreed. For me, the capsule/wax adds nothing. Someone I buy from…Wind Gap I think, goes au naturel. I am totally good with it.
I’m pretty surprised that a majority of folks here prefer no capsules, for this very reason Chris brings up. Most of us, I will venture to guess, have prepared an older bottle for transport to a restaurant by popping the cork with an ah-so, double decanting. Easy. After replacing the cork there is no evidence the bottle had been opened. Seems counterfeit bottles would be a breeze. I’m no high roller in the wine world but this is why I like the capsule.
A bottle without a foil looks unfinished, incomplete… a little naked. That said, the lack of a foil would never affect my willingness to purchase wine.
Looking through my ~ 1400 bottles it seems nearly 1/3 are foil-less.
More than anything, I suspect my thoughts on the issue are mostly nostalgic. Curious… how much does using a foil add to the cost ? And, as a percentage of the total packaging cost ?
I like what Bond does. No capsule but a hard piece of wax just covering the top of the cork. Easy to open, no mess and I can see the cork.
FWIW Francois Villard’s Syrah is plastic with a foil disc on top. IIRC his Côte Rôtie also does the same thing. Works for me. Foil is a pain, especially when I just want to get a glass of wine for a guest. Twist offs rule! Glad I don’t wait tables.
When putting our package/brand together for Ocelli Cellars, we decided to go w/o any foil or wax, and branded the cork so it could be identified. I didn’t like the idea of spending $ on something that didn’t really add any value, and only made opening the bottle a bit more difficult, and would just end up in the trash, but I did want the bottles to be identifiable when in cellar racking.
We also went with screen printed bottles, so bottling day is SO much quicker with less hassles than with printed labels and foils. Put the empty bottles on the truck, put in the wine, put in the cork, put the bottle in the box, done.
Foils make it hard to twist the cap off.
Funny you should put it this way, because that’s pretty much what I thought when I opened your shipment.
Figured you were taking a different tack, and that the wine will taste the same regardless.
I do not care for wax. However, I have never made a purchasing decision based on closure or capsule.