Reconsidering my position on wax capsules

[Anthony_C]

It would be interesting to ‘test’ your hypothesis by including both a waxed and foiled bottle and follow them over time. You are most likely correct - but if wax really is permeable as well, my guess is that the difference in oxygen ingress between the two will be minute over a period of years.

Cheers.

I agree with you in that if wax is permeable to oxygen, I suppose it will have only quite minute effect - especially with extended aging. However, for example this abstract for a research on wax permeability suggests that the oxygen permeability through wax is very minuscule, suggesting that it might actually limit oxygen ingress more than marginally.

That’s the one I was referring to earlier. Anyone in school here that can read that paper for free and give us the highlights?

[dougwilder]

As someone who opens a lot of bottles, the less time it takes to get the wine into the glass the better. Recently I see an uptick in number of producers doing away with closures altogether and finished with DIAM. Some wax formula is almost like beeswax and isn’t bad. Having said that, I haven’t found a good reason to have it on a bottle apart from cosmetic.