Its working title is the Nekker but I’m leaning towards Screwtopper for when the time comes to take it to market. The patent procedure takes ages but it will finally be published this month and after that we have to wait to see if the patent is granted.
The Nekker must go down as one of the simplest devices ever conceived - a sleeve that covers the threaded neck of a screw top wine bottle. It is to the wine bottle what hubcaps are to wheels or the tie is to shirts – almost entirely decorative.
More and more quality wine is being shipped in screwcap bottles because of problems with cork – problems with consistent supply and quality. The technology of screw caps is quite advanced – it has to be to replicate the qualities that cork closures have provided for centuries.
But screw caps rely on a threaded bottle neck and that looks, frankly, industrial.
Wine drinking is a lot about atmosphere, ambiance, a sense of occasion and I think the appearance of the bottle is an important part of that. In its simplest form the Nekker can be a sleeve that is fitted by the bottler and, once the consumer has screwed off the cap, slides up to cover the unsightly bottle thread. A more sophisticated version would be a polished stainless steel or even sterling silver sleeve that your host slips over the bottle neck to enhance its appearance when the screw cap’s been removed.
This removing of the top and applying the Nekker, in whatever form, would replace the time honoured cork removal procedure. At celebrations such as weddings and retirement parties the Nekker, appropriately embossed, would replace the cork as a memento of the event. Its advertising potential is untapped.
There you have it – The Nekker, or Screwtopper, or whatever - coming soon to a wine bottle near you.
