Closures for bottles have been around for as long as bottles themselves. Straw, clay, and leather were some of the earliest bottle stoppers. In the early 18th century, a Benedictine monk named Dom Perignon is thought to have been one of the first to use cork to cap bottles—in his case, he was trying to keep the bubbles in bottles of Champagne. In fact, corks were widely used as bottle stoppers until the early part of the 20th century, when...Continue Reading