December 29th
2006
...just about 5 days ago. Hint. We had read about this one and others in various articles, but were pretty surprised when it happened to us. It sure was a pleasant surprise and I might become a collector! Any clue what I am talking about?
EDIT: Cork or no cork. Sometimes the flaw can be quite subtle and barely noticeable, other times it's a slap in your face. But what to do when the host takes a first sip and declares the wine to be perfectly fine...awkward moment. Anyway, as more and more bottles and certainly very good ones, too, come with alternative wine closures, situations like the above should be of the past.
We totally support the idea to save the few left over cork oaks, but weren't quite sure what to think of some of the natural cork replacement candidates which we read and heard about. Would the next step be wine out of a fancy Tetra Pak? Anyway, the glass stopper, we think, is a keeper. It in fact adds a stylish note.
By the way, it sealed a 2005 "Grauer Burgunder", Weingut Friedrich Becker.
Absinthe?
Also ich tippe auf was Trinkbares, hier endet meine Weisheit allerdings schon. Wofür steht nur das PP?
Looks like Absinth, at least if the color is concerned. I never tried it myself though.
glass wine stopper, glass cork.... I don't know!
But yes, they are cute!
Cheers!
Rosi
Hmmm...it looks like a bottle of champagne, but not sure about the embossed lettering/numbers, but now I'm curious!
I never had wine bottles with glass stoppers so far, but you made me curious! The next time I visit a wine shop, I'll ask them!
Very cool photos!
I haven't had wine using a glass stopper, but I have tried some Australian wines with a twist top--very good! They also have some in those tetra paks you mentioned, but I've never tried them...yet! Happy New Year!
We use these (actually a very long time) in the lab to stopper glass bottles of seriously corrosive reagents like glacial acetic acid (vinegar is acetic acid with impurities). On occasion the glass stoppers will freeze in place. Sometimes a soak and a careful sharp tap on the stopper releases it, sometimes it doesn't!
I love screwcaps; easy to open and not likely to crumble and break up into the bottle or go bad. The days of being desperately stranded with out a corkscrew are over - Yippee!!! :-P
According to the Australian Wine Companion 2007 Edition by James Haliday-52.5% of all wines entered into the 2006 Royal Sydney Wine Show had screwcaps - white wines were 72.8%.
I think that cork stoppers will soon be quite rare in Australian wines and I will not be sad to see them disappear.
I am open for alternative stoppers, but only for wines that are suitable, i.e, young wines, meant to drink young and exactly as they have been bottled. Totally ok with a 2005 white wine which is light bodied; but heavier, stronger wines which are meant to get old won't be happy with these "complete-stoppers" like glass or silicone...
Sorry, guys & dolls, but you are all wrong or dizzy or all together: That green picture on top shows the bottom sight of the first delicious days gadget, a bottle of sparkling 2006 riesling fulled at the Hl. Geist Winery in Würzburg, signed with „dd” (not „pp”, because you never say that to a good wine in Germany) and of course not sealed with a glass stopper (imagine the harms on Silvester!). Yeah, they showed you this stopper later and let you discuss about it while drinking the stuff all by themselves, until it was to late to get it at your favourite food shop. But I have won my bottle now! Have a good rausch-rush-rutsch.
At first I had no idea what you were talking about lol. How cool is that? Great photos!
Sebastian, Nice one! I could now claim that you're so right and it was all intentional, but the sad truth is, I didn't even notice until I published the post... ;)
Why not wine out of a fancy Tetra Pak? Very practical when camping or out on a boat - no risk of cutting yourself if you drop the "bottle". Besides it is also less heavy to carry home from the shop!
In spain where dwindling cork resources have made traditional corks increasingly expensive, i've seen plastic/silicon mix corks (coming from wineries that are among the best in spain). It's an interesting debate: modernity vs tradition... but just last night we had a bottle of wine in which the cork had reacted with the wine... maybe plastic would have been better...
Ich würde auf Glaskorken tippen! Richtig?
Wir haben vor ein paar Tagen die gleiche Erfahrung gemacht. Unser erstes Examplar liegt (noch ungebloggt) auf dem Fototisch. War schon ein besonderer Moment. :-)
Kochblogger