As early as mid-August, wines from Amusant, Napa, CA, Clos du Bois, Healdsburg, CA, and Fetzer, Hopland, CA, will be available at 150 selected stores and restaurants in a test of the new closure in both California and in Texas.
The new closure is a plastic and cork hybrid, referred to as a twist capsule. The test uses special glass bottles with triple helix threads from Vitro Packaging. Using semi-automatic equipment from Gardner, the wineries apply a polymer capsule skirt plus a cork with a special resealable cap.
"I believe in the value and tradition of cork-sealed wines as well as the convenience of twist-to-open packaging," says winemaker Chris Demetre of Amusant. "What MetaCork offers is the best of both worlds, a closure that looks high in quality, can use cork, and is easy for the consumer and the wine server to use." To open the bottle, the consumer needs only to twist the special capsule to remove the cork. It can be easily removed from the cap that is threaded to allow resealing of the bottle.
Each bottle using this closure will also display a neck hanger that describes how the bottle can be opened; copy is also printed on the top of the cap. Point-of-purchase information at the selected outlets will also be available. In some instances, the various wines will be available in the same outlets with MetaCork and conventional cork-and-capsule packaging.
