Wine Capsules - a thing of the past?
At our Tasting & Tapas night last Friday in Kerb, Foxrock, someone asked why the Riesling Ante from Dr. Lippold didn't have a Neck Sleeve (aka Wine capsule)?
It doesn't need one, was my reply. So why do all the other wines have one?
The answer of course is that they don't need one - it is nowadays on the bottle for purely aesthetic reasons. In previous times, the capsule did protect the cork from bugs (moths & weevils etc) but with more reliable corks - which might not be 'cork' but that's for another day - and better storage cellars, there is no real need for the wine capsule anymore.
I did see on one site the query 'if no wine capsule, how do you know the wine hasn't been opened?' but that seems to be searching for any reason to justify keeping them.
That got me thinking back to the introduction of Screwcaps and the initial opposition to them -
I miss the 'pop', it looks cheap, it can't be good for the wine etc. All these reasons have ceased to be an issue, so can we now expect to see more and more wines without neck capsules?
Our guest at the tasting then asked 'Why does the wine need 2 labels (front & back)'?
That answer of course is the same! it's purely Aesthetic again! A nice front label might attract you but all the necessary info (Name, Appellation, size, Alc Vol, Producers details etc) could easily be on one label.
Might be a while before that catches on!
It doesn't need one, was my reply. So why do all the other wines have one?
The answer of course is that they don't need one - it is nowadays on the bottle for purely aesthetic reasons. In previous times, the capsule did protect the cork from bugs (moths & weevils etc) but with more reliable corks - which might not be 'cork' but that's for another day - and better storage cellars, there is no real need for the wine capsule anymore.
I did see on one site the query 'if no wine capsule, how do you know the wine hasn't been opened?' but that seems to be searching for any reason to justify keeping them.
That got me thinking back to the introduction of Screwcaps and the initial opposition to them -
I miss the 'pop', it looks cheap, it can't be good for the wine etc. All these reasons have ceased to be an issue, so can we now expect to see more and more wines without neck capsules?
Our guest at the tasting then asked 'Why does the wine need 2 labels (front & back)'?
That answer of course is the same! it's purely Aesthetic again! A nice front label might attract you but all the necessary info (Name, Appellation, size, Alc Vol, Producers details etc) could easily be on one label.
Might be a while before that catches on!