I’m always interested in wine bottles. Until recently the most amazing bottle covering was a port by Del Dotto in Napa, California. The bottle was covered in chocolate. All one needed to do was break away the chocolate while they drank the port. On a visit to Von Stiehl Winery in Algoma, Wisconsin, I discovered a bottle that had been wrapped in gauze. This was rather unusual. Dr. Stiehl started the winery in 1966. At the time, he was a country doctor in the area. According to the story, Dr. Stiehl believed that if a wine bottle were covered in gauze and then one applies plaster of Paris, the covering will protect the wine from light and heat.

So how well does this bottle covering work? Staff at Von Stiehl Winery opened a forty-year-old gauze plaster of Paris covered bottle and sampled the wine. It was not that good. However, this begs the investigation of whether winemaking techniques forty years ago were not as good as today or did the bottle covering just not work. To keep the Dr. Stiehl tradition going, the winery wraps some of the wine bottles in gauze and then applies a mixture of paste and paint. It does make for an unusual wine bottle. This bottle could make a good conversation piece and would be the perfect gift for a friend in a cast.