I’m constantly amazed at what expense and effort I see wineries go through on packaging that is not only superfluous but actually annoys their customers. If you think it’s a time-consuming nuisance to unwrap a dozen bottles think of the issue of WRAPPING thousands/tens of thousands of them in the first place. The single dreariest job at a winery, IMO, is bottling. It’s mind-numbing assembly line stuff but an obvious necessity. Throwing in an extra time consuming dimension that adds no value seems crazy to me. I barely tolerate our waxing of the tops of the few large format bottles we make. Hell, we tried going into 6-pack boxes in 2014 for some wines and everyone wanted to kill each other it was so annoying. That (bottle wrapping) would be like some special form of hell for me to suffer through.
I tear off all tissues on my wines when they come in for storage. I don’t keep any boxes except a few just to fill space and look nice. Even if I resale them they won’t get me that much more anyways. Of course I don’t sell much wine so it may not be best to ask me 
I keep them on. The winery that includes the tissue wrap has the label on the tissue too. So it’s easy for me to know which bottles they are and where they are in the cellar. I do have to admit the packaging of the whole box is pretty nice to open and they include some strong nicely printed cardboard that can be reused. The positive for the tissue is that I don’t have to wipe down the bottles to get all the lint off before I place the bottles in the cellar. It prevents any leakage from being overlooked and staining the cellar. I believe that the winery does the wrapping since the actual caps are darker to the packaging as a whole looks good. (Positives, keeps the bottles clean, labels nick free, the wrap is nice, makes it easier to give as gifts. Overall, not necessary too do, but since they had nice packaging I’ll use it and appreciate it.
I found it useless and annoying to remove.
Until the stores all ran out of toilet paper.
Seems like we got more people who go paperless, than the other way around. Thanks for the input. Cheers!
Paper wrapped bottles are too dangerous…they will slip easily out once you’re not holding them with a firm grip.
The only bottles that I store with their cellophane on are the ancient Massandras…they will not a label attachted to the bottles, but only a cellophane with the label on it…once this wrap is gone, you don’t have proof on what the bottle is or was.
See here:
Perhaps I should put this on CV19 thread. Is paper a barrier to CV19 virus?
If so, it would remove the need to sanitise bottles before filing them away (wearing gloves stand bottles on table, remove paper, take gloves off, file the bottles) - of course the wine has to be shipped that way !
I find that sanitising liquids make a bit of a mess of the labels. I buy wines for ultimate consumption not resale so that’s not a critical issue but it’s annoying and or I go over the labels lightly which is a risk.
As I understand virus dries out after a few days anyways, so I personally wouldn’t dare to sanitize my bottles and most probably destroy labels.
The bottle incl. paper or whatever would be lying in the cellar for weeks, months, years, so from this point there is no need to get rid of the “wrapping”. Just my 2c.
+1. Assuming someone coughed/sneezed covid onto the bottles at the winery, it’s almost certainly gone upon arrival, and even more certainly so by the time I drink the bottle. At most I’d wash my hands after handling the box - because UPS/FedEx might have infected it.
I remove the paper. I would prefer to LEAVE the paper on the bottle for potential long-term agers, as it should protect against light (i.e. the cumulative effect of light hitting the bottles in my cellar over time). However, the paper obscures visibility of the the vintage of the wine, so I have to tear the paper off to even keep track of which bottles are from which year.
I try to keep the paper wrapped on the bottles. I don’t worry about knowing what bottle is inside because I track my cellar online and use labels.
This. I see no use for them.
I keep the wrap to protect the labels. I also enjoy unwrapping them before drinking. I’m sympathetic to the humidity issue. I had that problem in a previous cellar, but thankfully not in the one I built.