# Cork in a Screw Top Bottle?



## TARRENEL (Jan 30, 2012)

I been getting wine bottles from work (casino) for free but they are the screw top type. I was planning on using corks with these bottles and then dipping the tops in wax (to hide the screw top). Could I use corks on these types of wine bottles? I havent bought my corker yet, so my next question is if I can use cork on these bottles will I need a special corker for these bottles or just the regular hand corker or floor corker work with them?


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## robie (Jan 30, 2012)

The tops on screw-type bottles are not tick enough to safely hold the internal pressure of a tight fitting cork. I would not recommend them for corking.

If you insist on corking them anyway, be very careful of them cracking or shattering. Also use a #8 cork and not a normal #9 cork. Look out for leaks.

In the end, if it were me, I would not try corking any screw-top wine bottle.


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## Rocky (Jan 30, 2012)

As attractive as free bottles are, I totally agree with Robie. It is just not worth the chance. There are many sources for cork finish wine bottles and I would investigate that, e.g. friends, wine tastings, bars, restaurants, etc. I know that there will be those who say they used a cork in a screw top bottle successfuly, but I simply do not think it is worth the risk.


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## TARRENEL (Jan 30, 2012)

You guys and gals are great. Good thing I asked the question or I might have had wine all over my brother in laws house. hehe


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## robie (Jan 30, 2012)

Except for specialty port bottles for gifts, I have never bought a wine bottle. Get your friends to save their bottles for you. Maybe you can hook up with a bartender at one of the local restaurants. He can safe bottles for you.

I finally had to ask friends to stop saving bottle, my garage is overflowing with them.

Just a tip - as soon as you receive a used bottle, rinse it really well. It will make thorough cleaning much easier later on.


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## Turock (Jan 30, 2012)

Recycle places are great for finding all the bottles you need. I could collect a couple hundred in one day, just standing at the glass recycle bin!!!


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## Olbuscap (Jan 30, 2012)

As for screw top wine bottles, apparently they are becoming a little more common place. I know of one local winery in Wisconsin that uses them, if not totally, at least to a great extent. Am I collecting the screw top bottles? Yes. Would I use a cork to seal them? NEVER, again to reinforce the foregoing, the top lacks sufficient reinforcement. Would I use them? Probably, since I am collecting them, but I would take a serious look at the reusable screw caps that have the cone shaped seal. Then, keep the bottles laid over during storage. Probably no need to wait the 3 days following bottling and corking, since the air pressure would not be able to vent through the seal as it does through the cork.
Anybody out there that has used these bottles with any success?


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## Turock (Jan 30, 2012)

This subject frequently comes up on wine forums. I don't claim to be an expert on the subject, but once it was fully discussed, everyone felt that screw tops are fine for commercial operations who can apply the cap in a sealed way by machine. Home winemakers should stick with the tried and true(over centuries)method of using a cork. At least, that's my opinion, too.


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## TARRENEL (Jan 30, 2012)

Well then if I use these bottles to store my wine, they are all 750ml bottles (same brand/company). Are there different size screw on caps? Or are all the screw on tops for 750ml bottles the same size?


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## Turock (Jan 30, 2012)

No--I'm pretty sure they are all the same size. Only time we use screw tops is for entering wine for judging, and it seems if you grab any screw top, it will fit.


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## cpfan (Jan 30, 2012)

There are two broad types of screw cap bottles.

1) Stelvin style as used by most commercial wineries. These use a specialized machine to apply them as the caps do not come with threads. The threads are created by the machine. There are also some different sizes of bottles/caps and you have to match them, but there does seem to be one dominant size. I haven't done much with screw cap bottles in about 5 years, so things may have changed.

2) 28mm screw cap such as the polyseal caps (the ones with the cone shaped insert mentioned by Olbuscap). Bottles are used by a small number of wineries. Bottles are usually sold at a bigger LHBS.

Polyseal does not fit Stelvin and vice versa. Plus, as far as I can tell all testing of screw cap bottles for wine storage involved Stelvin style, not the polyseal style.

Turock:

So when you bottle, you put a used screw cap on a screw cap bottle if it's for judging? How long do you then age the wine?

Steve


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## Wade E (Jan 30, 2012)

Please do not put a cork in a screw top bottle! Someone on another forum had to have over 4 reconstructive surgeries on his hand from trying to pull the cork out of a bottle of this type! The bottle broke in his hand and severed his tendons. Lucky for him it happened to him and not someone he gave a bottle to as that could have been a serious lawsuit!!!!


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## Turock (Jan 31, 2012)

Oh--we don't put wine in the screw cap bottle---it's colored water.In the fair judging, they want you to leave your bottles of wine for display with the ribbons you won. We hate wasting wine by leaving the opened bottles that were judged--so we replace the wine with bottles of colored water in screw cap bottles.

When we were young winemakers with few bottles, we DID cork screw caps. But just as Wade said--it's really not safe. When we get them,now, we toss them for recycle and because we now KNOW BETTER---would never cork one again.


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## TARRENEL (Jan 31, 2012)

Good thing I asked the question. Asking this question might have saved me and others a couple of fingers. Ok then the screw top bottles i do have will be going to the recycling bin. Thanks again


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