Bad cork?

[FLwineguy]

Long time reader, first time poster!


I bottled my LE19 Spanish Tempranillo last weekend, and noticed today one bottle has some seepage around the cork, and what appears to be a spot in the middle of the cork with wine coming through it. Could this be just a bad cork? I’ve kept the bottles upright, but did turn them sideways post-corking to make sure the cork was wet. (Maybe a mistake on my part)

I’m open to any input y’all have. I’m guessing I should just go ahead and drink that one now?

 

[skyfire322]

First, welcome to WMT! If that's the only one, then it's probably a bad cork. That happened to me once. Just to be on the safe side, I'd suggest (if you haven't already) checking all of them. If you don't have shrink capsules on the bottle, take a look at the neck of the bottles and see if the wine is starting to "creep up".

As for drinking it, I personally would. If the cork is letting oxygen in, then it could start tasting a little funky.

 

[cmason1957]

Did you maybe soak the corks, even for just a little bit before inserting them? I had the same thing happen to a few, it convinced me not to be a cork soaker.

 

[FLwineguy]

Did you maybe soak the corks, even for just a little bit before inserting them? I had the same thing happen to a few, it convinced me not to be a cork soaker.

I did...I put them all in a bowl and put a bit of sulphite sanitizer solution on them. Is that bad? What does it do to them?

 

[cmason1957]

Those look to be agglomerated corks made from small cork pieces held together with a food grade binder. Soak them in water and some of that water will make a channel from top to bottom, then you get leaks like that out the top. Anymore, I take them out of the box, insert them into the bottle, end of story.

 

[Doug’s wines]

Agree with cmason on not soaking these corks. How long ago did you bottle? Sounds like not long ago. If it was recently, I would just pull the cork and recork it. Actually just noticed you said “this weekend”. I would suggest you just recork it.

Think of all the air it was exposed to during bottling, It will be fine. You can always mark the bottle and make it an early drinker if you are concerned.

 

[FLwineguy]

Thanks! I replaced the cork with a clean new dry one, and set the bottle aside to try first in a couple of months.
I looked at the other ~58 bottles I did this weekend, they all look fine.
So I tried to do some research on which cork is the best to use, and settled on these, and bought 200 of them. (Already used about 120 of them.). Do y’all have a better recommendation? I’ll need more soon.

 

[cmason1957]

I have used those corks in the past. They are okay, but some folks have noticed that they tend to break apart a bit long term. Anymore, I just use agglomerated corks, good three to five years.

 

[Rocky]

I see that your corks are the 3-piece variety from L. D. Carlson. I used to use them exclusively but some of the last batches that I got were sub-standard in that they broke, leaked or came apart when uncorking. I contacted my supplier and asked if they had changed suppliers and the said that they had not. I contacted L. D. Carlson and asked if they had changed manufacturers and they said yes, they had. Something has definitely changed in those corks as I never had a problem with them in the past and in the last 2000 that I bought I was having a failure in about 1 out of 20. I returned the balance of the last 1000 order to my supplier in exchange for Nomacorcs at quite an increase in cost.

 

[FLwineguy]

I see that your corks are the 3-piece variety from L. D. Carlson. I used to use them exclusively but some of the last batches that I got were sub-standard in that they broke, leaked or came apart when uncorking. I contacted my supplier and asked if they had changed suppliers and the said that they had not. I contacted L. D. Carlson and asked if they had changed manufacturers and they said yes, they had. Something has definitely changed in those corks as I never had a problem with them in the past and in the last 2000 that I bought I was having a failure in about 1 out of 20. I returned the balance of the last 1000 order to my supplier in exchange for Nomacorcs at quite an increase in cost.

Dang. What do you use to put the nomacorcs in with? (I’ve got a floor corker, but read it can scratch the sides and make them leak)

 

[Rocky]

Dang. What do you use to put the nomacorcs in with? (I’ve got a floor corker, but read it can scratch the sides and make them leak)

I have an Italian floor corker and it seems to work okay. I have only bottled 134 bottles of a red (Nero D'Avola) and they look okay. I have the bottles standing so they have not been laid on their sides as yet on a shelf but I don't see any evidence of scratches or leaking.

 

[Hordak]

I use synthetic corks on my higher end kit wines and have never had a leak plus I can store the bottles upright in the box with no issues and they last. They are a small amount more than agglomerated at my local LHBS l.

 

[bstnh1]

Dang. What do you use to put the nomacorcs in with? (I’ve got a floor corker, but read it can scratch the sides and make them leak)

I've had no issues using a Portuguese floor corker to insert Nomacorc corks. No creases, no leaks.

 

[Rocky]

I use synthetic corks on my higher end kit wines and have never had a leak plus I can store the bottles upright in the box with no issues and they last. They are a small amount more than agglomerated at my local LHBS

Where do you buy your Nomacorcs? I pay $175/M for them and the 3-piece corks are $147/M. Works out to be about 3 cents per bottle more, so no big deal. My larger issue is that they are only 1.5" long instead of 1.75" like the 3-piece. There is an advantage in that the Nomacorcs have less "memory" and bottles can be stored upright.

 

[GaDawg]

just had to post it.

 

[Rocky]

just had to post it.

You know, Dawg, if you watch this video very closely, you can detect a hint of double entendre in the dialog.

 

[JohnT]

Did you cork, then lay the bottle on its side? I normally cork and let the bottle stand straight up for a day or two. This allows the cork to re-expand a bit.

 

[FLwineguy]

Did you cork, then lay the bottle on its side? I normally cork and let the bottle stand straight up for a day or two. This allows the cork to re-expand a bit.

Nope, it was upright still when I found it.

I re-corked it and it looks fine now. Will drink that one first (early even maybe.)