Wax Seals over Corks

[mychurch]

image.jpg

The new Ruggabellus wax.

[Ian S]

We are all in agreement that we move back onto the subject of wine, but given that this is essentially an unmoderated forum, it's up to all of us to ensure we don't throw personal insults as happened here. If that's not possible, I am done with this forum.

[phillisc]

Very nice lunch at Mitolo in MV yesterday...popped across the road to Bondar and picked up a sixer of the 2020 Violet hour, gorgeous fruit driven wine.
Picked up a magnum as well ...interestingly wax sealed.

As for the way this thread unravelled, typical behaviour exhibited and how does it go...oh so boring

Ian please keep posting, you give me a good international perspective on the wine front.

Cheers Craig

[Redback]

Opened a 2017 Sami-Odi on the weekend. Normal corkscrew and the wax came away clean with the cork. Opened up nicely after an hour in the decanter. Lovely wine!

My understanding is that wax does not offer any great benefit to storage. It is a common choice by smaller "artisanal" producers as it easy to use, looks good and is a cheaper choice than foil.

[Mahmoud Ali]

This will be my last word on the issue:

- Whatever people think or assume, I was using an analogy.
- I was not "venting outrage" on ancient historical grievances - I am not indigenous.
- The analogy was based on what is very current in Canada, something that has been in the headlines all summer - even the Governor General mentioned the May discovery of unmarked graves in her opening remarks when presenting the throne speech just last week.
- My explanation to Australian forum members should have helped.
- The real question is whether the analogy I put forward works or not. Instead it seemed to anger Jamie. This is the only reason why I presumed his sensitivity to any similarities with Australian history. If I overstepped the mark, in making an assumption, I apologize.
- The whole point of the analogy was to illustrate the likelihood that we would never do today what was done in the past.
- If people stop to think about it, the side lesson of the analogy I used is that we are better people today than we were before and hopefully will continue to do so.

I suppose I could have chosen a less dramatic analogy. In fact if it weren't for the issue being so prominent at this time in Canada I probably wouldn't have thought it - almost daily updates on the news, more discoveries across the country, continued requests for the Pope to apologize, seeing the flag flying at half mast on all schools, the legislature, and city hall for six months, and all the discussion of what to do about the flag on Remembrance Day cannot help but affect the thought process. Had this come up last year my analogy would have been different.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And now for something completely different:

I seem to recall that I picked up a Spanish Godello off a clearance shelf a couple years ago and in my mind's eye I see a yellow wax capsule. Why on earth would a Godello need a wax capsule?

Cheers ........................ Mahmoud.

[Scotty vino]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mmyy1cPwzi8

Seems a bit brutal?

In Spain was shown how and witnessed the opening of very old wax sealed Rioja by simply tapping the edges with a knife. I never got near their proficiency and my tapping technique produces shrapnel.

I guess it depends on the age of the wax and its flexibility. As illustrated I think for relatively young wax seals this works well.
I wondered whether it could be melted off by way of reheating? Bit of a party trick?
Might help with the older more brittle wax seals.

[kenzo]

The wax comes from a nearby aviary, is light in colour, smells tremendous and looks pretty good.

I hope you meant "apiary" lol! Otherwise the smell would be tremendously different!

[GraemeG]

Let me derail things further.
I had a diam the other day that was wet about 80% towards the top.
Never seen anything like that before - all the others have only had a tiny little disc of deep colour right down in contact with the wine.
So there's a first.

[Mahmoud Ali]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mmyy1cPwzi8

Hi Scotty,

My first thought was, as he handled the bottle and twisted it in his palm, how would that work with an aged Napa Valley wine with sediment? It's okay if you're only drinking young wines.

The wax on my 1965 Malvedos is hard and brittle. Even when a bottle was opened almost two decades ago it left a shower of wax shards all over the table cloth as we chipped away at it.

Mahmoud.

[mychurch]

The wax comes from a nearby aviary, is light in colour, smells tremendous and looks pretty good.

I hope you meant "apiary" lol! Otherwise the smell would be tremendously different!

I could blame it on the Iphone autospelling, but no, that was just a moment of sunday morning madness.

[JamieBahrain]

This is worth a read. I’ve a lot of old fifties and sixties Rioja and Barolo in hard wax sealed capsules. Whereas modern Barolo for instance, the wax capsule is more synthetic in texture as explained here. Not sure I’d gamble not cutting away synthetic wax prior removing the cork? I’ve a lot of Barolo magnums from the likes of Brovia and Mascarello that are for the long haul. A disintegrating cork being pulled through a wax seal would be problematic. Although the link below claims the cork now protected against excessive oxygen that may weaken the cork seal.

Thanks for the PM’s. I didn’t know there was an ignore function. Nothing in common with a couple of contributors, even in a vinous sense, I don’t like know it all’s, so there is peace on the forum.


https://grapeworks.com.au/news/packaging/bot ... gKfgfD_BwE

[Scotty vino]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpCrHBxI9nM

Master somm. Heats it up, straight in.
Watch the very end as he presents a failed attempt at opening a wax seal.

[RobK]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpCrHBxI9nM

Master somm. Heats it up, straight in.
Watch the very end as he presents a failed attempt at opening a wax seal.

Interesting vid, thanks Scotty.

[mychurch]

That reminds me of a dinner at restaurant Hong Kong in Rotterdam. This was standard European style Chinese, all eaten with a fork and knife and the owner Lucas had, comparatively, a few reasonable wines in the list. The duck was the best in town though and so one evening I dropped of a bottle of 43 Latour Volnay. Lucas popped it into his wine fridge, we went out and had a few drinks in a bar and when we got back, the food was ordered and Lucas went to the end of the room to open my special wine. As he did with all his red burgs, he served it chilled, so he took said bottle out of the fridge, turned it upside down to try and equalise the temperature and then popped the cork. What of course we got as a glass full of Burgundy infused sediment, which is what might have happened had that sommelier in the video handled the wine.

[Gavin Trott]

Hello All

I have now run the auswine forum for as long as I can remember, since before I even started in business, so certainly 20 – 25 years, probably more. Its actually one of the ‘older’ original web sites on the WWW I reckon?!?!
Its always been free, so everything at my expense, in $ terms, and in time terms.

I’ve certainly ‘met’ some interesting characters along the way, and had my share of needing to ‘moderate’, as some people, on forums seem not to be able to discuss and debate, and have someone disagree with them, without it seeming to become personal.

This seems to be happening again, and, well, I’m just a bit tired I reckon.

So, I’ve decided that that is enough for me, ready to retire from it.

If anyone is interested to take it over, please think about it, and let me know and I can help with moving the forum, passing you the domain perhaps, and a bit about how its run (or not, if you don’t need any help! :--)

Alternatively, if no one is interested in taking it over, then I think I’ll just close it, and move on.

Let me know what you think?

[RobK]

Hey Gavin,

Thanks for the heads up. I have run a few forums in my time and I can't say that it has ever been that much fun. One of those forums is still going and costs the owners a fair bit to run. I gave one away when solicitors started jumping all over it threatening legal action (defamation) and is one of the reasons I ended up studying law. Half the people in that forum couldn't grasp the concept of defamation nor on forum rules and just getting on. Another forum just ended up wilting as new forms of social contact sprang up. Facebook has killed this sort of forum and I prefer it more than the new style. I'm a member of a Qantas crew forum and I enjoy catching up but the dramas are overflowing all the time. Breach of copyright, defamation and I'm over it.

You've done a great job and if someone sticks their head up, it would be great. If not, you've done a great job and I thank you for your efforts.

All the best

Rob

[Hacker]

Hi Gavin, I totally understand but am extremely saddened as this forum means soo much to me, especially over the last couple of years with COVID meaning we couldn’t be social face to face. This forum to a large extent helped fill the gap. I don’t know the answer but I hope there will be one as this is the ONLY wine forum that has no agenda. And it is free.

Gavin, you have been a generous host, offering great wines at great prices. I am truely in your debt. Thank you, most sincerely.

[kenzo]

Similar emotions/thoughts - I've ridden the wave of previous flare-ups and never really gave them much mind. 20 years of TNs and banter will be a real shame to lose. Perhaps announce as a new thread as "Wax Seals over Corks" is not the most visible thread. Thankyou for your efforts over the years - I must have joined early 2000 or thereabouts with a long hiatus, but the notes in between have been very educational. Indeed yours must have been one of if not the first. Winestar was there for a bit but I enjoyed coming back to this forum when I rediscovered my enjoyment of wine.

[Mahmoud Ali]

Similar emotions/thoughts - I've ridden the wave of previous flare-ups and never really gave them much mind. 20 years of TNs and banter will be a real shame to lose. Perhaps announce as a new thread as "Wax Seals over Corks" is not the most visible thread. Thankyou for your efforts over the years - I must have joined early 2000 or thereabouts with a long hiatus, but the notes in between have been very educational. Indeed yours must have been one of if not the first. Winestar was there for a bit but I enjoyed coming back to this forum when I rediscovered my enjoyment of wine.

I agree that it would indeed be a shame to lose all the valuable information, opinions, and tasting notes.

At this point it would be remiss on my part not to admit to being partly responsible for some of the "flare-ups". Usually it would involve me expressing something in an awkward or cavalier way and someone or another getting upset. Try as I might to explain or re-frame my position it seemed, at least to me, that the other person would never let up and often used invective - I've been called a thief and a cheapskate! I probably should not have continued with the discussion but it is often difficult to remain silent when one's words or argument is twisted or misread. Often I felt there was a visceral element coming from the other side and I very much tried to remain, though not always successful, restrained and circumspect.

If it helps you in changing your mind Gavin, in the interests of other forum members, and to help keep this very valuable forum alive and well, I can offer to not post or reply anymore.

Thanks for all the years of service to an appreciative wine loving community.

Cheers ..................... Mahmoud.

PS: A long time ago I stumbled on another wine forum and joined in order to make a comment on something, I can't recall what, but it wasn't long before I was called a Callingwood supporter. Being Canadian I had to look it up before I could respond. The funny thing is that the person who accused me of it had the temerity to say that he wasn't aware of it having any meaning. Oddly enough that person was a Jamie. Anyway, it is with you in mind, and others as well that I made my offer to Gavin.