Need for wine foil?

Wes_Barton · December 30, 2020, 10:29pm

They use a pretty thick wax that gets harder and less pliable with age. It would need a pretty sturdy cork to just pull through. This particular 15 year old cork was definitely not sturdy, needed to remove the wax from the top to be able to use an ah so.

With younger bottles (at least with the softer wax), I agree that the ignore and drill method works almost all the time.

BTW, it’s a Brewer Clifton Pinot Noir bottle in the video. That gives an idea of the thickness of the wax. Now imagine it when it’s older and less pliable.

-Al

Years ago I came up with a pretty good method for hard wax capsules. It’s not pretty, but it works well and keeps MOST of the wax shards off of your counter and your wine. Take a double or triple paper towel and get it lightly damp. Wrap it over the hard wax, keeping it fairly tight around the neck. Then take a butter knife/meat hammer/any kitchen tool and give it light to medium taps all around the top and sides of the wax down to the lip of the bottle. Make sure you’ve done it all around in order to get the wax in small pieces. Then twist the towel up and off, pinching it as you lift so all of the wax pieces stay in the paper towel. You might have to scrape off a few little pieces, but this generally gets most of them and leaves most of the wax in the paper towel ready to toss in the trash.

I use a kitchen knife and generally knock off the wax on the back patio, where making a mess isn’t as big a deal. Breaking off the wax this way is not a gentle operation, though. My problem is remembering to do it a few weeks in advance when I’m opening an older bottle, so I can put the wine back in the cellar, the sediment has time to re-settle and the wine can be decanted.

Imagine bringing a bottle like that to a fancy restaurant dinner, having assumed it were an easy to deal with wax.

Al_Osterheld · December 30, 2020, 11:15pm

I’ve seen Raveneau bottles open at a casual restaurant, bit of a mess. Nice moment to have a Somm who can take it away to open.

-Al

Nick_Ellis · December 31, 2020, 12:09am

I opened a 1995 Herman Ludes Riesling tonight, and when I took the (plastic) foil off, the cork fell into the wine. The wine itself is beautiful with no oxidation whatsoever. This isn’t the first time the capsule has saved an older bottle for me, so I won’t object to their use on long-haul bottles. Anything meant to be opened within 10 years doesn’t need the foil.

Karl_K · December 31, 2020, 1:20am

I have not done this but have read for Dunn type wax to soften with heat like a cigar torch.

larry_schaffer · December 31, 2020, 3:19am

It’s best use these days is to make foil hats to keep you safe from aliens, right?

Al_Osterheld · December 31, 2020, 3:33am

Yep, especially those shape-shifting lizard people plotting with Justin Bieber, Bill Gates, and George Soros to use 5G for world domination.

-Al

ChrisL · December 31, 2020, 4:41am

Glad Soros was finally brought up regarding foil. I’m sure he and Alcoa are in bed together ensuring capsules on all our bottles. Wake up sheeple.

J_Patrick_Lynch · April 12, 2023, 1:48pm

Yesterday, a bottle slipped from the top of my rack and fell to the concrete floor below (about 4ft) , but only a few drops were spilled. How so? It landed top down and the foil capsule allowed for the glass under the capsule to crack, but not be displaced.

Capsules: good for something?

Brian_Tuite · April 12, 2023, 2:02pm

Still shaking my head 3 yrs later over Wes’ “gutless lemmings” quote above.

Oliver_McCrum · April 12, 2023, 5:33pm

Last year I visited a winery that keeps back a lot of bottled wine, they said that cork moths are a very real threat. The grubs can eat holes right through cork. (They said it was the same species as the clothes moth.) They have pheromone traps to check. Capsules would be a barrier against these moths. I suppose this only affects wines that are supposed to be aged.

lleichtman · April 12, 2023, 8:22pm

Mo Ayoub is stuck on wax capsules. I have asked him why and he says it is a good look. I think they are just a pain in the ass to chip off.

J_Patrick_Lynch · April 17, 2023, 10:04pm

JonathanG · April 17, 2023, 10:09pm

I’ve opened a handful of older bottles where the cork was fully saturated and the capsule was seemingly the only thing keeping it sealed… not sure how good of a seal it proves though.