Why I (really, really) don't like wax capsules

[Robert.A.Jr]

Michael,

What I’m asking is why make things more complicated than they need to be?

AR

So you can charge more!

I’m a cyclist, so I like waxing!

[PaulMills]

So you can charge more!

I’m a cyclist, so I like waxing!

Um, I just shave. Much easier and less painful.

[Robert.A.Jr]

So you can charge more!

I’m a cyclist, so I like waxing!

Um, I just shave. Much easier and less painful.

Pain is commitment to cycling. Don’t be a wuss.

[PaulMills]

So you can charge more!

I’m a cyclist, so I like waxing!

Um, I just shave. Much easier and less painful.

Pain is commitment to cycling. Don’t be a wuss.

Calling me out like a boss! I will toughen up and start waxing tomorrow. Maybe I will start with my toes.

[Cris_Whetstone]

Pulling it directly through the wax capsule is not foolproof. In multiple cases, I’ve had the cork break while trying to pull directly through wax, as the wax was too tough to give way to the cork fully. I watched one friend try this on an older bottle (2001 burg, not even that old), and his corkscrew shredded the center of the cork creating an unholy mess of little bits falling into the bottle.

The hot water treatment also only works on younger softer wax capsules - it doesn’t do much good on old crusty curmudgeon wax.

Vince nails it. Aiming for the middle with a corkscrew is the best you can do but it doesn’t work every time. If the wax is of some age it just crumbles. Good luck keeping every but out of the bottle. It’s pretty much impossible once it becomes hard and brittle.

Using it to combat premox must be some sort of joke. Producers blaming enclosures for premox feels like politicians suddenly stirring up a faux crisis when a scandal breaks. Maybe the producers that have avoided premox all these years have been paying extra to have their corks treated with pixie dust?

[William_Kelley]

Maybe the producers that have avoided premox all these years have been paying extra to have their corks treated with pixie dust?

How numerous are they? I can think of at best three or four in Burgundy. And they work with the best corks money can buy, use very high levels of free SO2, and in some cases wax as well.

White Burgundy was definitely rendered more fragile by changes in winemaking, grape growing, and, to a lesser extent, climate; but it would be a mistake to think that the closure isn’t critical. Had closures been superb and consistent, we would have seen an arguably unfortunate stylistic change, rather than the total collapse of a genre.

If you pick the right wax, it does seem that it enhances the seal. It is worth noting that, in the days of lead capsules, any seepage would react with the lead, creating salts that, if you will, almost “cauterized” the bleed. I’m sure people who have opened bottles with lead capsules have noticed this. Tin/aluminum are notably inferior to lead in this respect. So just from a technical perspective, wax is the best of the options that are legal today. It also happens to be cheaper, more ecologically friendly, and doesn’t require the expense of a custom capsule adapted to non-standard bottle shapes.

[David_Bu3ker]

Feel free to send all wax coated bottles to me. I will suffer for you all.

[Rodrigo_B]

So just from a technical perspective, wax is the best of the options that are legal today. It also happens to be cheaper, more ecologically friendly, and doesn’t require the expense of a custom capsule adapted to non-standard bottle shapes.

When you say cheaper is that on just the materials costs or does that include the labour in dipping the bottles on wax?

[William_Kelley]

So just from a technical perspective, wax is the best of the options that are legal today. It also happens to be cheaper, more ecologically friendly, and doesn’t require the expense of a custom capsule adapted to non-standard bottle shapes.

When you say cheaper is that on just the materials costs or does that include the labour in dipping the bottles on wax?

Material cost. I think total cost would depend if you have employees free to wax bottles when there would otherwise not be much to do, or if you have to hire folks. As one domaine in Chablis responded to an offer for a waxing machine (these are now a commercial proposition from Fichet), “but if we didn’t wax by hand, what would we do in the winter?”

[Cris_Whetstone]

Maybe the producers that have avoided premox all these years have been paying extra to have their corks treated with pixie dust?

How numerous are they? I can think of at best three or four in Burgundy. And they work with the best corks money can buy, use very high levels of free SO2, and in some cases wax as well.

White Burgundy was definitely rendered more fragile by changes in winemaking, grape growing, and, to a lesser extent, climate; but it would be a mistake to think that the closure isn’t critical. Had closures been superb and consistent, we would have seen an arguably unfortunate stylistic change, rather than the total collapse of a genre.

I really do not understand how you can draw that conclusion. Had enclosures been inconsistent why didn’t premox happen 50 years ago? I find this just a big distraction.

Maybe a stronger enclosure can slow down premox but as we’ve seen with screw caps that would mean producers are going to have to tweak something at or prior to bottling.

But again, that’s not addressing the real issues as you’ve listed. This comes across mostly as a distraction at worst and a mere band aid at best.

As far as the list, I don’t follow Burgundy beyond Chablis excepting the few things I bump into here. But I do remember someone taking lists some years ago. It seems as though it were more that three or four houses that were not seeing premox. I suppose that’s the rub to me. At least in Chablis we see people making wines from the same vineyards and not having premox. Then others that get it badly. It shouldn’t be that hard to figure out the what’s and why’s. I know many houses keep books of what they do year to year. It really can’t be that hard to track what changes coincide with when premox reared it’s head.

But we’ve been down this path. For whatever reason people will accept the general lack of openness and answers while accept things like Diam being an answer. Whatever is going on wax tops suck and won’t solve premox.

[M_Meer]

Had closures been superb and consistent, we would have seen an arguably unfortunate stylistic change, rather than the total collapse of a genre.

They sure did some funky things in the '90s… I’m looking at you, '95 Pernots

[Larry_Link]

Pulling it directly through the wax capsule is not foolproof. In multiple cases, I’ve had the cork break while trying to pull directly through wax, as the wax was too tough to give way to the cork fully. I watched one friend try this on an older bottle (2001 burg, not even that old), and his corkscrew shredded the center of the cork creating an unholy mess of little bits falling into the bottle.

The hot water treatment also only works on younger softer wax capsules - it doesn’t do much good on old crusty curmudgeon wax.

Vince nails it. Aiming for the middle with a corkscrew is the best you can do but it doesn’t work every time. If the wax is of some age it just crumbles. Good luck keeping every but out of the bottle. It’s pretty much impossible once it becomes hard and brittle.

Using it to combat premox must be some sort of joke. Producers blaming enclosures for premox feels like politicians suddenly stirring up a faux crisis when a scandal breaks. Maybe the producers that have avoided premox all these years have been paying extra to have their corks treated with pixie dust?

I’ve opened more than my share of Raveneau and PYCM wines sealed with wax, and the technique of plunging the corkscrew into the wax works every time. I do this over a pull out trash can in my kitchen, and after the cork is 50% out, scrape the shards of wax around the edge of the bottle. Very little mess, usually no wax makes it into the bottle or glass. I don’t understand the vitriol around wax.

I also believe that the wax provides a much better seal than a capsule for oxygen ingress if the cork fails or leaks. It’s a tight seal to the glass and top of cork.

I wish Roulot would try sealing with wax capsules, his wines premox rates are getting worse.

[RichardFlack]

Michael,

What I’m asking is why make things more complicated than they need to be?

AR

Maybe we could just have white paper labels with black print too.

It’s wine. It tells a story in many ways. Some stories are more complex than others.

So what is the story behind wax? We sell our wine to be visually admired, not drunk?

Just holding the palm of your hand over the top for thirty seconds should soften the wax enough. But then we have Samuel Billaud who thinks it’s fun to put some gold leaf on his wax capsules, which of course comes off on the hand.

I have nothing against something done for supposed visual appeal, unless it impairs the consumption process.

What’s next - hand blown bottles that won’t fit in a rack?

[RichardFlack]

So just from a technical perspective, wax is the best of the options that are legal today. It also happens to be cheaper, more ecologically friendly, and doesn’t require the expense of a custom capsule adapted to non-standard bottle shapes.

When you say cheaper is that on just the materials costs or does that include the labour in dipping the bottles on wax?

Material cost. I think total cost would depend if you have employees free to wax bottles when there would otherwise not be much to do, or if you have to hire folks. As one domaine in Chablis responded to an offer for a waxing machine (these are now a commercial proposition from Fichet), “but if we didn’t wax by hand, what would we do in the winter?”

Wax on, wax off.

Simples.

[Adam_Frisch]

Wax is much cheaper than buying capsules or seals. When you factor in the time it takes to seal them and the elxricity needs to heat the wax bath, then perhaps not. In my tiny operation, to avoid going insane, I only wax just before I ship my bottles to customers. That way it’s spread out over the year and feels a lot less like work. If I had to do them all at once, I’d develop scoliosis from the repetitive motion and insanity from he boredom!

[Mattstolz]

but… without a capsule or wax… what will protect the vulnerable cork from contamination?? Kelley Fox learned this the hard way from the internetz.

[Marshall_Manning]

For the hard messy, crumbly wax, I put a single layer of a towel over the bottle and gently rap it with a tablespoon, straight down and from the side on the edges of the bottle top. Remove the towel, then put the screw in through the middle of the cork and pull up partially–there is less wax on the bottle to deal with. You can rap on the wax still clinging to the bottle before you pull the cork all the way out.

This. Although I use something a bit heavier, like a meat hammer and a damp paper towel so the wax mostly sticks to the paper towel. Gets old Ganevat and Foillard wax off with no problem at all.

[Wes_Barton]

Michael,

What I’m asking is why make things more complicated than they need to be?

AR

Maybe we could just have white paper labels with black print too.

It’s wine. It tells a story in many ways. Some stories are more complex than others.

“The winery owner is a pretentious douche bag. The end.”

[Wes_Barton]

Pulling it directly through the wax capsule is not foolproof. In multiple cases, I’ve had the cork break while trying to pull directly through wax, as the wax was too tough to give way to the cork fully. I watched one friend try this on an older bottle (2001 burg, not even that old), and his corkscrew shredded the center of the cork creating an unholy mess of little bits falling into the bottle.

The hot water treatment also only works on younger softer wax capsules - it doesn’t do much good on old crusty curmudgeon wax.

Exactly. There are so many different materials used, each with their own characteristics. Even if you’re used to what your favorite producer uses, that’s subject to change, so you may be caught off guard by a new release or older bottle. The properties of the capsule can change as they age, so may become problematic. They can also age into an ugly appearance. I have some 40 year old “reserve” bottles where the wax thinned out or something. They look like someone slipped used condoms on them. Seriously. Total WTF appearance. I challenge anyone to provide an equally accurate description.

[Sean_S]

It happened again today.
I went to open a bottle of 2018 Bierzo from Veronica Ortega.
Damnation, wax capsule.

Chip away, make a mess, necessarily leave some on the outside of the bottle.
Wipe away the bits that inevitably remain around – and on the inside of – the neck of the bottle.


Why, oh why do producers do this?
I see no positive side whatsoever. Do you?

It cab be pointed out that there are supple wax capsules. Although useless, these are admittedly much easier to remove. But, hell, other than standing out for marketing purposes, I see no justification.

If tradition is the answer, I’d say that there are good and bad traditions, and that this is one of the latter.

Best regards,
Alex R.

I’m with you on this. Always hated wax and hate them more after last fall when I was trying to scrape off the wax (obviosuly the wrong technique) and managed to stab myself in the arm with a foil cutter and ended up in the ER for 6 stitches. It was the last thing I really wanted to do during Covid was to spend 6 hours in Zuckerberg SF General Hospital ER waiting to get stitches but thats how it ended. Thanks to Ed Kurtzman and Wes Barton for getting me medical care and Winemaker Justin for cleaning up all the blood I spurted everywhere at Ed’s winery. I’ve learned since then just to bore through the wax with the cork screw but I’m not a fan.

Sean