Make the wax wane, please

OK, I just nearly poked a hole through my finger trying to get the “wax” off a bottle of wine.

A sharp knife didn’t work, perhaps because the substance, whatever the hell it is, was pliably soft. The edge of the corkscrew proved better at impaling digits than ridding the bottle of this foreign substance.

Some of my favorite vintners have been guilty of this treatment. But this particular bottle was from a Wisconsin winery (!). The juice inside was actually pretty good, but no wine is worth the effort it took to open this abomination.

I am ready, willing and able to hear any rationale for putting a big gob of waxy material around the top of a bottle. I’m probably not gonna buy it. I’m fine with treatment at left, btw.

In the meantime, I’ll just consider it a pretentious, ludicrous affectation.