Stoppered As a line of defense to protect wine, glass stoppered bottles can be said to play an important role. There are many types of glass stoppered bottles on the market, and they all have their own characteristics.
Natural cork stopper
Natural cork is the most common type of wine stopper. It is made of the bark of Quercus suber/Cork oak, which is a natural renewable resource and can be degraded. It is lightweight, soft and elastic in texture, so it is compressible. But the downside of this stopper is that it can cause cork contamination. Cork contamination is caused by a chemical called trichloroanisole (TCA), which can give wine unpleasant smells like musty or wet cardboard.
Screw Cap
Screw caps usually consist of two parts, a metal cap and a plastic liner, and are recyclable. Compared to natural cork, screw caps cost less, provide better sealing, and reduce the chance of cork contamination. Suitable for sealing all kinds of liquor.
Composite Cork
The composite stopper is mainly made of cork particles remaining after the cork stopper is made, plus a binder. These stoppers are less expensive to make but have a fairly fine texture. The disadvantage of the composite stopper is that it is easy to break when the bottle is opened, and the quality is not stable. Also, binders can get incorporated into the wine and contaminate it. This type of stopper is usually not suitable for wines that need to be aged for a long time.
Glass Stopper
Glass stoppers consist of a glass cap and a ring-shaped gasket, sometimes wrapped in a special membrane to keep the wine safe during storage and transport. The gasket is odorless and resistant to alcohol and acid corrosion. This type of stopper is beautiful, recyclable, well sealed, easy to open, and reduces the risk of cork contamination, but it adds weight to the wine and costs more.
No matter what kind of glass stoppered bottles are shouldering the mission of protecting wine, through knowing and understanding a wide variety of bottle stoppers, although each type of bottle stopper has advantages and disadvantages, their types are not directly related to the quality of liquor.
