Wine bottle closures have certainly undergone a revolution. The Stelvin screw cap and variations are widely used and accepted. Corks of varying materials — high-tech plastics — are common. Traditional cork closures, of course, will never go out of style — though cork taint has not been eradicated either.
The Vino-Lok made its appearance in my home on a Zantho St. Laurent and Zantho Zweigelt — two well-made, cool-climate reds grown in Austria.
First you notice you can’t drive a corkscrew in the top. Then your eye finds the “zipper” around the bottom of the neck foil for removing the tin “cap” over the bottle top. Then, ah-ha, you see the lip of the glass cork and you twist it out. And then you find it is replaceable — and fits quite snug.
As Kristen Horan Reitzell of Calhoun & Co. Communications in San Francisco points out, the glass closure fully seals the bottle, allowing little air in. It is considered ideal for imports, which can sometimes suffer in transit.
The Vino-Lok is used mostly on wines meant to be drunk young. It’s pretty cool.
Zantho put its woodland lizard logo on the top.
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