Page 31 - Grapevine May-June 2019
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In The Winery
glass closures and screwcaps. VIDON has shifted to operated business in Watkins Glen, New York has
these closure types after using corks in the begin- been exclusively distributing Gultig Corks since
ning. 1997. Owner Chris Stamp told The Grapevine
Magazine that his most popular closure is a
“A percentage of wines that use corks will be micro-agglomerated cork called Carat. He said that
either tainted or oxidized after some time in bot-
tles,” Hagge said. “Corks are used for traditional
reasons in spite of their problems.”
Sean Comninos, winemaker for William Heritage
Winery in Mullica Hill, New Jersey, says his winery
uses both Stelvin closures and Diam corks at this
time.
“The William Heritage brand is currently 100%
under various grades of Diam depending on the
aging window,” he said. “We use Stelvin on our
‘Jersey Wine Collection’ brand, as these wines are Image Credit: lakewood.com
meant to be drunk immediately and are more for
casual enjoyment.” one of the drawbacks of using natural cork for wine
is the potential for cork taint, but with Carat, the
Comninos said that in the very beginning, all their supplier uses a patented cleaning process to elimi-
wines were under the same agglomerated cork. As nate cork taint issues.
the winery grew, it began using Stelvin closures for
the Jersey brand because it made these wines more “The construction of the cork provides a consis-
accessible and kept oxygen transfer at a minimum. tent surface that is nice for branding,” Stamp said.
The winery used Nomacork for a little while, but “In addition, this cork is one of our least expensive
this closure didn’t have the ease of opening that closure options.”
Stelvin offered.
Richard Smith of Tecnocap in Glen Dale, West
“We were using a combination of agglomerated Virginia, said the tinplate continuous thread closure
and natural corks in the Heritage line for quite is a common closure among wineries today. This
some time,” Comninos said. “Ultimately, we felt type of closure is relatively inexpensive and seals
that even though we were spending a lot of money bottles effectively. Another closure that is ideal for
on premium natural cork, and we had too much wine bottles is Tecnocap’s Espritbonnet.
inconsistency. Many bottles showed cork taint or
premature oxidation. The lower end wines felt a “This is a plastic closure with a customizable metal
bit cheap with the agglomerated corks. I had begun overcap,” Smith told The Grapevine Magazine.
to see a lot of the corks I was pulling from various “When used with a capsule, the bottle has a similar
producers seemed to be made by Diam around appearance of a corked bottle. The metal can be
2014 and 2015. Not a single one was flawed, and customized with solid colors or elaborate graph-
I felt that the cork had an acceptable aesthetic ics. The liner typically is an expanded polyethylene
quality. So, with the 2015 vintage, we switched the foam, but other liners can be used that match the
entire line to Diam. I’ve been quite pleased with needs of the individual winery.”
the results due to no TCA issues, no bleed-through
corks, or weird oxidative issues at all.” Liz Green of Mala Closure Systems in Petaluma,
California, said that her company currently only
Popular Wine Closure Products manufacturers screw caps. She firmly believes that
these closures are great alternatives to cork.
Many highly experienced companies specialize
in bottle closures to help wineries make the best “We don’t like to promote any superiority in clo-
choices for their operations. sures since the sealing mechanism can actually
have a great deal to do with the final stages of the
Lakewood Cork, an independently owned and winemaking process,” Green said. “What our cus-
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