What do you call that thing?

I sent a letter to Don Sebastiani and Son's tonight that I want to share. LBV is le bon vin de la Napa Valley, a label of The Other Guys, a division of Sebastiani (albeit as far removed, apparently as Plato's shadow on the wall of the cave.)
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Thought you might want to know this.

We're not cork snobs. I understand all of the reasons screw tops are actually better. But . . .

We opened our first bottle of LBV Chardonnay, Vintage 2004 today. As soon as I popped the ? (what do you call that thing), an overwhelming smell of vinegar assaulted my nose. "Oh . . . this is bad," I thought. I smelled the--okay, we'll call it a cork for lack of a better word--and wow, vinegar, strong vinegar. I put my nose to the bottle. Vinegar again. But, I thought, maybe this is just something about this particular corking method . . . maybe the wine is okay. So I poured some. It was fine. I was surprised. So was my wife (who's face when she'd put her own nose to the bottle . . . well, let's just say the culprit here wasn't my sense of smell).

Bottom line: good wine.

Real bottom line, let me quote my better half here: "I don't think I'd buy this again."

"The cork?" I asked.

"Yeah. That was just weird."

I had to agree.

So, bottom line, even those open-minded about the right way to seal a bottle of wine don't want to have flashbacks to dieing Easter eggs when they open a bottle. That plastic thing that's not a screw top and not a cork . . . also not cool in our book.

I just thought you'd want to know.
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cdc