2016 Nero D’avaola Cusumano Winery

The server walked our Italian red wine bottle to our table. We watched as the foil got pealed off. Then, strangely, the server twisted out its cork. What the heck? We wondered if this were a twist off top bottle? Yes and No….A glass stopper got placed in front of me. My glass eye fell out, staring directly at a GLASS CORK! This was our first encountered glass tops in wine. Later, I discovered glass stoppers have been in use for several years. In examining this new thing, it does not screw onto a bottle’s capsule. Rather, there is a plastic seal, which is pushed in tightly. The specific type of cork signals what the winemaker thinks about a bottle’s content. A plastic cork costs less than 1 penny; a composition cork costs about twenty-five cents; screw tops are less expensive, but reliable; genuine corks have a wide price range, upwards to around two dollars per cork. T-L-C Dashboard theory indicates a producer of estate wines are will to buy more expensive cork. Adding “Glass Cork” technology raises a different set of questions. How good do glass corks seal a bottle’s content? Will wine age against a glass stopper as it does against natural cork? Does the its plastic seal deteriorate under heat? What are the cost factors, glass vs cork, bottling machinery, different bottle capsules, etc. I wonder if a sommelier would even mess a bottle of wine having a glass cork? The red table wine proved good. And I grabbed that darned glass stopper, took it with me for fun.