By James Atkinson
Barossa Valley winemaker Stephen Henschke has been very impressed with a five-year trial of his wines under glass cork closures.
Henschke told TheShout he is now using the Vino Lok system on a range of his wines, including Hill of Grace, Cyril Henschke and Mount Edelstone, after long-running trials with the Australian Wine Research Institute.
"We did our due diligence before we started using it, just to see where the wine's headed under a glass closure," he said.
"We've got five years of data now and we're very happy with the result – once you've got the data in place you can plot it out over 20 years."
Henschke, who recently revealed why he would never go back to cork, said that apart from the practicalities, the Vino Lok closures also "look beautiful".
"When you pull it out the wine stains the bottom of the glass section so you get the same sort of effect as you do with the cork," he said.
"I've seen people take it out and pass it around, they are quite intrigued by it. You can badge it with your crescent on the top.
"It brings back the ceremony and the cultural heritage part of wine and it looks the part."
Photos by Dragan Radocaj.