The Auswine Forum

Came across this synthetic cork style closure when opening a bottle of Francois Carillon AC Burgundy. Can any of the closure gurus here identify this type of closure? Mainly plastic, with a sleeve around an inner core.

[img]https://i.postimg.cc/zXh8hHPj/C8-F34571-57-E ... 1-E7-C.jpg[/img]

Hi Malcolm,

It's the Guala Seal Elite synthetic cork - I had not seen one for years and was shocked to see it when I opened a 2016 Chateau Bernadotte a couple of months ago. I was sure I read/heard that the company went broke some time ago...

There was an original thread about this thing back in 2010 when they first started appearing in some Burgundies:
https://forum.auswine.com.au/viewtopic.php?f ... 12&p=84677

[img]https://i.imgur.com/kxpVRgT.jpg[/img]

Seems to have a spongey inner to take the cork screw, surrounded by a couple of layers, the outer being reasonably hard plastic. Guess it did the trick for a bottle that's only 3-4 yrs old. Interesting to see your original thread was over ten years ago

Domaine Ponsot have been using these on all their wines from the 2008 Vintage, including his Grand Cru's.

Cheers Con.

Good to see you are still around Ian.

Ghastly looking thing, looks like an old valve from a CRT TV.
Synthetic cork, pathetic really, avoids TCA, but keeps the dream alive.

Cheers Craig

ps. clicked on aforementioned thread, the title is apt, but not overly pleasant. Sparky Moira, there's a blast from the past

n4sir wrote:Hi Malcolm,

It's the Guala Seal Elite synthetic cork - I had not seen one for years and was shocked to see it when I opened a 2016 Chateau Bernadotte a couple of months ago. I was sure I read/heard that the company went broke some time ago...

There was an original thread about this thing back in 2010 when they first started appearing in some Burgundies:
https://forum.auswine.com.au/viewtopic.php?f ... 12&p=84677

[img]https://i.imgur.com/kxpVRgT.jpg[/img]

Think they go by Ardea Seal nowadays....

I like em...although not many long term examples to really test this out myself...Ponsot maybe but I'm not a fan of the style so not willing to pay the tariff to see how they've aged...

I think Mac Forbes Experimental stuff used to have them....few other places...

Polymer wrote:Think they go by Ardea Seal nowadays....

I like em...although not many long term examples to really test this out myself...Ponsot maybe but I'm not a fan of the style so not willing to pay the tariff to see how they've aged...

I think Mac Forbes Experimental stuff used to have them....few other places...

Right you are - I just checked the base of that Bernadotte Cork and there's Ardea Seal stamped where Guala Seal used to be...

Huon Hooke wrote a piece about them five years ago:

https://www.therealreview.com/2017/02/08/pon ... -approval/

http://www.ardeaseal.com/gb/elite-materiali.html