Historically, cork sealed bottles needed some sort of covering to prevent the cork being gnawed by rodents or infested with cork-boring bugs. Down through the years the corked end of the wine bottle has been covered and protected, first with wax (slow to apply, hard to remove), lead foils (REALLY bad for landfills and groundwater) and these days with capsules of tin, aluminum, poly-lam or heat-shrink PVC.
In the 21st century it seems to me that if your corks are being chewed on by rodents or weevils you have more to worry about than whether your wine bottles are being stored properly. I’m thinking of doing away with capsules on our wine bottles. To my thinking the capsule has become an affectation, a beauty mark applied with a felt-tip pen.
Getting rid of the capsule is not a revolutionary or even a new idea. Plenty of packages have moved to something else. Like a clear heat-shrink capsule (for goodness sakes why?). Or a neat square finish bottle neck with a tiddlywink of plasticky wax over the end of the cork itself — tough to push a screw through and just begging to flick into someone’s eye at the next table. And I’m pretty sure others have already “gone naked” — Copain Wine Cellars bottlings come to mind. But traditional embossed tin capsules sure are pretty, and I’m wondering how big a slice of the wine-loving world is so married to the look that the lack of a covering would make a difference to them. 
Capsule Pros:
- They look nice.
- They are part of the traditional, expected wine bottle package.
- They offer an extra bit of canvas for branding.
Capsule Cons:
- They are an added and perhaps unnecessary cost — $0.09 to $0.15 per bottle, plus the added labor on the bottling line to apply them.
- When I make a buy of custom printed capsules the minimum order represents three years of bottling — a significant chunk of change, and a storage requirement.
- A particular capsule size locks me into using the bottle that fits it properly.
- They are a recycling burden: they should be removed from bottles before recycling as the tin contaminates the glass cullet, causing a dark brown coloration to the re-melted glass.
- The tin itself is a valuable recyclable — at nearly $8/lb. it is over ten times the value of scrap aluminum — but recyclers are few and far between.
- Capsules can be the bane of an elegant tableside presentation of a bottle of wine: they can be hard to cut off cleanly, leaving an unattractive ragged edge, and one can’t tell if the cork has leaked underneath the capsule until it is removed.
The pictures in this post show the variations in Westwood packaging. We have been bottling our 4-Part Rosé since 2005 without a capsule, and so far without a server or consumer complaint. So what do YOU think? I’d really like to hear from my wine-loving friends, brokers, retailers, and especially servers and sommeliers. Is naked beautiful?
by emily
21 May 2010 at 12:46
I fully support the move away from capsules. I always grappled with them: they look terrible when they don’t cut cleanly; half the wine-opening population doesn’t know the proper place to cut them; it was added junk to stuff into my pockets (I never employed the fancy foil-as-cork-holder method because I couldn’t get over leaving trash on the table); they often cut my fingers. And for what? Old tradition? Bah.
The beauty of a bottle’s presentation doesn’t rely on the capsule. And the environmental impact is a really good point to consider! I’m not surprised that Westwood is ahead of the curve on this one. =)
by Samantha Dugan
22 May 2010 at 08:34
Have no love for foil and that shrink wrap crap is just silly. The first thing I do at my tastings/classes and when I open a bottle at home is to pull the whole damn foil off….in fact it pisses me off when I cannot slip the whole thing off and rather than cut the little top off I slice the side of the foil and then remove the whole thing.
As a retailer I can think of maybe 3 times in 13 years that a consumer seemed sheepish about buying a wine that was sans capsule and at least two of those times they were not wine drinkers, they were buying gifts.
One of my favorite Dagueneau stories, one that I tell at all my classes that feature his wines. Didier gets a call from an importer in Asia; one that had been begging for a tiny allocation for years…upon receiving his first drop he calls Didier to tell him there must have been a problem on the bottling line as all the wines arrived without capsules. Didier explains that he doesn’t use them and even mentions that that’s how you can see the vintage (other then looking on the back label). Well they go round and round and in the end the importer still throwing a hissy fit, tell him that this was unworkable and he needed to be sent some kind of closure for the tops of the bottles. “Very well” responded Didier….and he sent him a case of condoms. Guess who didn’t get a second allocation?
I say go naked.
by Benito
22 May 2010 at 09:36
I like the capsules that can fairly easily slip off, but everything else is a nightmare. Worst offender is that wax cap that invariably gets brittle and makes a mess.
That being said, I can think of another Pro for the capsule: security. Without it, you can use an Ah-So puller and remove the cork, replace the wine with something cheaper, and sell it. In a restaurant, if careful, you might be able to use the same bottle and cork multiple times.
I think people have become pretty accustomed to some sort of seal (metal, plastic, paper, etc.) that indicates whether or not a food product has been opened.
by John M. Kelly
22 May 2010 at 10:14
Benito – interesting point about security. With Bill Koch’s long running battles against the folks who sold him counterfeit wine in mind, I know many producers of collectible wines are looking at new methods of fraud protection. One of the complaints against wax or opaque foils has been that they hide any identifying marks on the cork and obscure the fill level.
Steve Bachmann of Vinfolio has written about avoiding counterfeits. I agree with him that a pull-tag which incorporates anti-forgery technology is the best answer. Another obvious alternative is the screw cap — they don’t call it a ROPP (for roll-on pilfer-proof) closure for nothing. But I’ve long opposed ever going there with my wines.
In theory I see your point about pulling the cork with an ah-so and re-using it. But in practice I’ve seen that the prongs deform the sides of a cork in such a way that it is very prone to leakage, with an unmistakeable characteristic pattern — especially if the cork has been in the bottle a couple years or longer.
by Kevin Lynn
22 May 2010 at 10:02
I think it’s an outstanding idea to go naked….. having opened countless thousands bottles in restaurants I can think of no good reason to keep them. If you are using cork at least you can see the texture of the cork… adds to the visual appeal.
by Eddie Townsend
22 May 2010 at 10:15
Ever notice the green mold atop the cork after you cut the capsule off a bottle of quality riesling, sure you have. They add the capsule “last minute” so that they don’t have to clean hundreds and thousands of bottle tops before they finally release the wine. We fortunately do not have Germany’s mold cultivating climate to deal with but as much as I agree with the sensibility in “going naked” with the Westwood capsule, I don’t share your feelings on this topic.
I, a Certified Court of Masters Sommelier (hehe), actually like the tradition of PROPERLY removing the capsule as a part of wine service in a restaurant. And as a Westwood employee I am extremely fond of the look that our capsules add to the package as a whole. If we were using the generic capsule with a grape cluster embossed at the top I would absolutely agree with your decision to “go naked” but the big outstanding “Roman W” atop our bottles really pops. And from a customer’s point of view, when you scan your wine cellar looking for the perfect Pinot Noir to pair with your sliced duck breast over lentils, it makes a difference.
I think naked works for the 4-Part Rosé because we sell it at a lower price point than the other wines and when you bring a bottle of it to a Tuesday picnic on the plaza, you don’t want to be concerned with finding a recycling bin for your little piece of capsule. I don’t think that going naked with the other Rhones would be a mistake either. But I think the Pinots need to make a statement at their price, especially in the current economy. And that is all I have to say about that.- F. Gump
by In With Bacchus
22 May 2010 at 11:07
Ditch ‘em, I say.
I can’t count how many times I’ve gone to open a bottle and ended up with a tattered mess of aluminum/tin shrapnel or microscopic pieces of faux wax all over my tables and desks. It’s just incredibly annoying.
I’d be all over a small (read: very, very small) heat shrinked plastic wrap over, say, the first quarter inch of the bottle top but it would have to have a perforated peel strip on it and only be a ring, not the entire capsule. I only say this for quality assurance (don’t want someone tampering with my wine). Something small to ensure that it hasn’t been opened or screwed with before I drink it. But nothing like what wine bottles have now.
by John M. Kelly
23 May 2010 at 10:02
From Amy Gerber, recently wine buyer for Sondra Bernstein’s restaurants, via Facebook:
I’m torn. I like the ritual of cutting the foil tableside. I think it allows more time to engage with the guests and continue to hype the wine. From a personal standpoint, it’s one extra step to getting to the deliciousness and I could live without it. Btw, just did a focus group study for a market research company today so I’m in that mode.
So far that’s five “go nakeds,” one “OK for inexpensive wines but not for the Pinot,” and one “maybe yes, maybe no.” Thanks to everyone who’s played along!
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28 Jun 2010 at 13:22
[...] month I asked for feedback on whether or not I should continue using traditional foil capsules on our wine bottles. Thanks again to those who shared an opinion. In the comments to that post I reiterated my [...]