The Bekaa Valley with a twist

Why use the Stelvin (screw cap) closures on the Classic range?

• It prevents the bitterness, mould or pungent aroma associated with cork taint.
• It offers superior retention quality analytical and sensory characteristics of fruity wine.
• Screw caps are convenient for removal and re-sealing and allow wines to be stored in any position.
• The consumer is guaranteed to open a fresh bottle of wine every time with no risk of flavor deterioration from cork taint.

The last 30 years has seen wine production increase and the supply of cork struggle to keep pace. A Spanish or Portuguese cork tree needs 30 years to reach correct maturity and many suppliers ended up using inferior quality corks, leading to increase in the incidence of wine taint, especially in the entry-level wines, where as many as 30 to 40% of the wines are tainted to different degrees because of bad corks.

There is nothing more upsetting to us to know that somewhere out there, somebody may be drinking a fruity Massaya Classic that doesn't taste as we intended it to simply because of the cork.

We are passionate about getting rid of cork taint, which can dull the fruitiness, leaving the wine bitter, mould and, heavily pungent. With Stelvin caps we can deliver the fruity wines as the winemaker meant to be.

Synthetic corks have found less of an acceptance as there are still questions about their being 100% food-grade in the long term as well as their synthetic material's ability to spring back to their full size after being forced into the neck of the bottle (something at which the cork excels).

Why then use cork on the Silver Selection and Gold Reserve?
elvin ensures that every bottle of Massaya Classic will retain its freshness for current enjoyment. However, our Silver Selection and the Gold Reserve wines are meant for ageing and only a high-quality cork can bring the appropriate porosity that gradual ageing demands.

How to open a Stelvin screw cap?
 don’t need to have a post-graduate degree in mechanical engineering nor superhuman strength and dexterity, (or even a corkscrew, for that matter) to open the Stelvin closure.

The screw cap is one cylinder when it goes on the bottle at bottling time. When you first get a bottle, hold the whole screw cap and neck seal and move it slightly and it will move as one and loosen. If you move it too hard it will crack the seal and the bottle will be open, so do it carefully.