The Zork

For hundreds of years, stoppers made from cork have been the closure of choice for wine bottles. A cork, even under the best of conditions, has a life span of only about 30 years and because of that old wines require re-corking every thirty years or so. Natural cork is also subject to a myriad of mold and mildew problems which can and often do spoil the wine.
Recently, synthetic closures have entered the marketplace. Synthetic closures have none of the problems that occur with natural cork; but introduced a whole new series of problems of their own. To eliminate the most obvious question about these closures, they do not add any chemical or other off flavors or aromas to the wine.
Another question is the fallacy that the cork must allow the wine to breathe in order for the wine to age properly. On most modern bottling lines the bottle is fist purged with nitrogen and then is filled after which the closure inserted thus reducing the possibilities of airborne contamination.
During our research, one thing came to the fore: without any question, an excellent closure for a bottle of wine is a metal screw top. Will someone please throw some water on the wine geek who just fainted at that last statement? The screw top will seal a wine bottle best, result in less spoilage and will outlast cork stoppers by a factor of ten to one. The problem is that there can be nothing less glamorous or more mundane than a screw top.
Now, from Australia, comes the newest challenger for title of “King of the Hill,” of wine bottle closures, the Zork. This could be, at least for the present time, the answer to all of the problems with wine bottle closures. The Zork is a plastic stopper that fits over the top of the bottle and locks into place to effectively seal the bottle. It also offers one more treat; the Zork can safely reseal the bottle for enjoying the wine at a later date.
The next obvious question that comes up is the inevitable “how long will it keep the wine fresh?” According to David Hamlin of Crosby and Baker, one of the country’s largest distributors of winemaking supplies to both commercial and home winemakers, the wines he tested that were sealed with a Zork were as fresh after several months as they were when they were first opened.
The Zork is simplicity personified. The closure is remover be pulling a tab at the bottom of the stopper and unwinding it three times and then just pulling it off. To reseal one just inserts the Zork into the bottle and pushes the white button on the top which then locks the Zork and seals the bottle. This closure is so good that it can even be used to reseal sparkling wines without any fear of it popping out or loosing gas.
We believe that the Zork will remain mainly within the field of affordable wines. Fine wines, you know, those expensive ones, will probably stay with the natural cork and foil covering capsule purely for esthetics and tradition. For the affordable wines, the Zork should begin to show up with ever increasing frequency.
The cost of a Zork is slightly above that of the average natural cork or synthetic closures with the exception of the premium corks which are about double the price of a Zork. The Zork however, is much more expensive than the crown caps used on beer bottles and carbonated beverages so its appearance in that category is highly doubtful.
Right now the Zork is being used on the wine bottles of Pepperwood Grove Yellow Tail Sparkling Wines, Red Leight, , Deerfield Ranch, Plungerhead wines and many of the wines presently coming from Australia and New Zealand and is being evaluated by some California premium wineries.
For a quick video of the Zork in action, go to YouTube and enter “ZORK: The Ingenious New Wine Closure.”