Using Corks Myths and Realities for Winemakers
A horse often beaten to death on forums is usually fraught with misinformation and myths is the subject of corks. There are certainly many opinions that are valid as well on the subject of using corks so in the interest of Amateur Winemaking I thought it might be a good idea to start this blog.
Let’s start with a little story from the past. At the beginning of my wine making many years ago a local winery was selling Chardonnay for ten dollars a case. That is not a typo. The winery used natural corks but there was a problem. The corks had either started to disintegrate or they were not washed properly and had cork dust on them. Not knowing for sure exactly the problem the results were very obvious all kinds of things were floating in perfectly clear and polished Chardonnay. The lesson? Wash Corks before using them.
And so that is what we did for years. We dipped them in water and dried them with a towel before we would use them. I was never really comfortable with this as I felt the water did get in the pores of the corks and that could be a source of bacterial growth. Except for an occasional TCA Corked bottle the bacteria worry never materialized. While this was all going on others would insist that all corks should bathed in a K Meta Solution while others claimed the K Meta would contribute to the deteriorating of the cork and reduce its effective service life.
Well a few things have changed. We buy sealed bags of corks that are fresh from the manufacturer. With arrangements with Frank Musto and M&M Grape Company they arrange for us to buy them in 500 count bags not the usual 1000 count. Amorin Corks lets us return opened bags for re gassing and restoring humidity level up to I year after purchase. We don’t wash them anymore and we have moved up from the value grade to extra grade which for the price difference are really excellent. The Extra grade are 3 from the top grade of Flor.
Amateurs buying small amounts face other problems as LHBS re pack corks in plastic bags with no controls or even a date when packed. This leaves the Winemaker with the possibility of receiving dried out corks that will crack and break and provide a poor seal.
While I prefer natural corks there are a myriad of other choices whether they are other cork type products or synthetic ones. My only real experience is with two types. On one occasion I tried the double topper type. It is an agglomerated cork ( pieces of cork held together by glue ) with a disc of natural cork on each end. I used them once , I found the discs separating when I opened some of the bottles. The other cork I have used for white wines which were going to be opened within a year or two is the newest type agglomerated cork where the pieces of cork are extremely small in size. I have had no problem with them at all and the manufacturer demonstrated to me at the Winery Show last year these corks which were placed in bottles 5 years ago with no particles floating in the solution. Not for my Beckstoffer but not a bad choice for the guys who drink early. That is if you can live with the idea the glue is really food grade LOL.
I know there is much more people can add to this blog so for now I will leave it there and see what others have to contribute..
Didn’t know M&M sold factory sealed bags of 500 corks with SO2 gas. That’s good to know. Thanks. I have been buying Ganau corks through Greg Perucci for about 3 years now – the 2 inch naturals. They are the finest corks I have ever used. Usually nicer than what I find in wines priced in the $50-$100 range. I haven’t had a bad one yet. And they are reasonably priced.
We have been using the 1 3/4 length. 2 inch is a long cork I am surprised it fits in an Italian Corker. I was going to move up to 1 7/8 but the thinking is you can drop a grade down if you do that. Frankie Juice can order them for you at M&M. In the past I did buy Corks from Greg.
OK, this might sound silly but i’m still a newbie.. I prefer natural cork, but why not synthetic after all they won’t disintegrate. Do corks still breathe with a capsule on them. Isn’t the air bad for the wine? I never got a straight answer to these questions. HELP.
Al, I’ve been waiting patiently for Gene to start a blogpiece on this very subject, so I could ask the those very questions. (you’re a newbie LOL)
and with synthetics, you don’t need to lay the bottles on their sides.
Looking forward to the answer as well…however, from a traditional standpoint I hate buying a bottle of wine and finding one of those ugly, lifeless, pieces of synthetic crap in it. Makes me feel like I am drinking something cheap regardless of the cost.
On the other hand, from what I have read a while back in the NY Times, there is a worldwide shortage of natural cork. So we may be forced at some point to use synthetic one way or the other.
I bottle with 2 types, one high grade natural corks for wines I know I won’t touch for 1-3 or more years and those I plan on starting to drink in the next year I use the less expensive agglomerated corks.
Myth or True? Bottle necks are not perfectly concentric? Synthetic Corks do not conform to these variations and leak.
Myth or True? Synthetic Corks do not breath providing no micro oxygenation.
Myth or True? The world wide cork shortage is completely over exaggerated . Stop reading the New York Times. As if you need another reason.
I have used synthetics, in my kit days, and i did notice that at times they would form a crease , along the length of the cork. In some cases, if you put those bottles in a rack, neck down, you could actually get wine to drip out, slowly.
Probably not good, eh?
There have been issues with certain manual corkers making a crease as you describe. Also there are new types of synthetics that solve many of the problems of the first ones introduced.
On another front I have never used the Conglomerated types.
Isn’t this funny I am having that problem now with the corks I was down stairs bottling the last few days and are italian corker is taking a very small slither of cork offthe front of the cork and a drop of wine has been coming to the top. I been spraying the top of the corked bottle with a k meta solution . .So iam going keep them standing up for a few days before i put them to sleep laying down i had the same problem with the pourtagese corker. Now I am wondering if it’s the cork that I bought, I think there agglomated corks not to expensive. But it is not hapening to all the bottles can there be a defect in some of the corks the way there were manufactured???
I have not heard of this problem with agglomerated corks only the fully synthetic ones. I think many problems arise with natural and agglomerated corks occur when they are dried out. I had some very high quality corks that hung around too long and they were a major problem to use.
Speaking of laying down the bottles, I have always practiced and recommended to fellows to keep bottles upright after corking for 24 -48 hours giving time for the cork to set. After that the bottles can be stored up side down or on their sides. I like up side down so there is equal pressure on the bottles when stacking cases. This is really mandatory when stacking Burgundy Bottles.
I have used the Altec corks for about 5 years. I still have some of those bottles. Over the course of 500 bottles, I had one minor leak on a bottle of Port. Other than that, they are great. I have recently switched to natural cork overruns due to cost (about 0.10 cheaper than the Altec)
DaveD please share unit cost of the Altec. By overruns I assume these are branded with a logo from a commercial winery. This is where I draw the line. Not in my bottles! LOL
Altec generally runs about 0.33 per cork. The overruns have the name “x”‘d out. So, it is not the most attractive.
Another factor in my decision to switch was that Altec corks seemed to be disappearing from the market.
I used Altec once about 7 or 8 years ago. Every bottle under that cork tasted like Elmers glue. I had to dump then all. I would never use them again. 33 cents is very expensive for cork dust, in my view.
I’ve had good results with Nomacorc and twin disc type corks for early drinking wines over the years. No problems in my Italian corker for either type, though my recollection is that the folks who have had issues with creasing in synthetics were in older corkers where the jaws are a bit misaligned. But now I only use the 2 inch premium cork from Ganau for everything. At 65 cents each they are not cheap, but I learned that being pennywise and pound foolish on cork is not for me. Cork quality might be second behind grape quality for me.
I use 1 3/4 corks , number 1s .
I buy them in a bag of a thousand. Most years that leaves me a few extra , some years it’s not enough . I order half tonne bins , some times they are 700 lbs and some times they are 1100 lbs
In only pay the exact weight of grapes delivered but there is variation . I get the grapes to my house within 24 hours of picking so I tolerate in exact bins.
I often use winery overrun corks , which tend to be mostly set up errors rather than actual over runs. Ie the logo isn’t straight or there are lines through it from the guides .
Someone else’s logo doesn’t bother me when I get a bag of 1000 corks for 170 bucks vs 650 dollars for the same quality.
I never use agolmerated , synthetic twin disk etc corks.
I just don’t like the performance.
I’d rather use # 3 naturals than premium agolmerated or synthetic corks.
I like to think I try to make wine good enough to deserve good cork.
Why buy premium grapes and then put that wine at risk using agolmerated crap that will fall apart in 2 years?
Hey Zac
WineBusiness.com equipment for sale
Title:
Automatic Corker
Location:
Ellensburg, WA
Date Posted:
Monday, January 21st
Company:
Elevage Wine Company
Quantity:
1
Price:
$1900
Description:
1999 Enolta Mapa automatic corker. 220v, 3 phs, 30 amps. Recently went tuned up by Davidson Supply and work perfectly. Please email for pictures. $1900 O.B.O.
Cool , I was about to buy a vintage Vespa , might be a corker to look at across the boarder in Washington.
I remembered you wanted one! I understand they have reasonably priced convertors to deal with the 3 phase problem.
I am confused about the model however.
http://www.tcwequipment.com/Products/Bottling/Corkers/AutoCorkers.htm
I think the stand up time for bottles after corking is really more about pressure equalization. The action of shoving in the cork increases pressure in the bottles. If you lay them down, instead of air pushing out to equalize, they push out wine. This problem is worse if your fill level is too high. Bottling line corkers pull a vacuum as the cork is put in, eliminating the pressure issue and the bottles don’t have to be flipped a day later. With manual corkers, the broken cork edge is usually from either dry corks or worn corker parts not compressing corks enough.
I have 3 phase in my shop for welding up old motorcycles .
No problem .
It helps to know a lot of industrial electricians from the mining game.
Z
I like the corker on the bottom of the page, The SiEM Rotary Corker,”up to 250 per minute”…
Must sound like a machine gun. My yearly production could be bottled in less than 90 seconds.
Dan…current adminstration wants to ban automatic weapons. I would buy it before it is no longer available.
Good point. They may just let me buy the corker but not the corks.