How often have you experienced cork failure?

[JohnT]

I have been using 100% natural cork. I have not had a single cork fail on me in over 8 years.

 

[sour_grapes]

Just opened a bottle of commercial wine. I am in the habit now of removing the entire capsule, rather than just the end of it. Oddly, the capsule was sort of "glued" to the bottle. Hmmm, strange. Oh, and the end of the cork looks a little funny.... Do I have a problem? Well, I opened the wine, and the cork looks okay. However, yes, I do have a problem. The wine tastes quite oxidized. Still drinkable, but not very pleasant at all. (This is a wine I have had many times before -- I buy it by the case.) By the way, as best I can tell, this is a premium quality natural cork -- not even agglomerated.

 

[SouthernChemist]

Never had a single cork failure in 2+ years. If a winery is having a failure rate of 9%, they should have looked at their particular source of corks or their corking method rather than assume all corks fail at that rate.

 

[digitaleye]

I went to a winery recently, and she used nothing but Zorks, because she said 9% of wines go bad do to cork failure.

Just for clarity, are you sure they didn't include TCA cork-taint as a type of cork failure? 9% is still astonishingly high but just curious. I use Diam composite corks and have had great luck with them, though I learned that I need to leave the bottle upright for a week or so after bottling so the corks can re-expand fully before storing horizontally.

 

[Geronimo]

If the failure rate was really 9% everyone would have given up on corks as soon as anything else became viable.

 

[sour_grapes]

Studies show that 73.8% of statistics are made up on the spot!

 

[cmason1957]

Studies show that 73.8% of statistics are made up on the spot!

Actually that number is 89.73%. I know for a fact.

 

[Enologo]

Anyone out there use tasting corks and can bottles be stored on their sides using them??

 

[bstnh1]

Anyone out there use tasting corks and can bottles be stored on their sides using them??

Tasting corks for storage??? Not a good idea at all. They're ok for a day or two, but anything beyond that requires a high quality cork.

 

[Geronimo]

Actually that number is 89.73%. I know for a fact.

My brother said it's more like 89.4% and he's a pretty fart smeller.

 

[kryptonitewine]

My brother said it's more like 89.4% and he's a pretty fart smeller.

Whaaaaaaat?


Spell check get you. Lol.


Jim

 

[bstnh1]

Just opened a bottle of commercial wine. I am in the habit now of removing the entire capsule, rather than just the end of it. Oddly, the capsule was sort of "glued" to the bottle. Hmmm, strange. Oh, and the end of the cork looks a little funny.... Do I have a problem? Well, I opened the wine, and the cork looks okay. However, yes, I do have a problem. The wine tastes quite oxidized. Still drinkable, but not very pleasant at all. (This is a wine I have had many times before -- I buy it by the case.) By the way, as best I can tell, this is a premium quality natural cork -- not even agglomerated.

I opened two bottles of wine (I forget the type) from Sterling and both were bad - tasted and smelled like a bottle of cleaning chemicals. I e-mailed them and they shipped me two replacements. Commercial wine can indeed be bad. I still don't know if it was from cork taint or because someone put engine degreaser in the bottles. lol All I know is that it was horrible stuff. The replacements, by the way, were fine.

 

[Geronimo]

Just to be fair, I use zorks instead. We just like the convenience and 100% success rate. They are a bit spendy at 32¢ each but I don't need a corker, wax, capsules, or a corkscrew. So the extra cost is really minimal, if anything. Besides, I'm no good at soaking the corks.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fuj1aKxET8Y"]SNL Soaking the corks[/ame]

 

[jswordy]

My brother said it's more like 89.4% and he's a pretty fart smeller.

Whaaaaaaat?


Spell check get you. Lol.


Jim

Best post I have seen on here in several weeks!

 

[bstnh1]

Anyone using Diam II corks? Where do you buy them?

 

[grapeman]

I went to a winery recently, and she used nothing but Zorks, because she said 9% of wines go bad do to cork failure.

How often have you experienced cork failure?

And now that the Cork Soaker skit was finally brought up, in case of cork failure, there is now Viagra and Cialis....................

 

[bstnh1]

How often have you experienced cork failure?

And now that the Cork Soaker skit was finally brought up, in case of cork failure, there is now Viagra and Cialis....................

The problem with corks soaked in Viagra is that they shrink after 4 hours.

 

[Avantjour]

Cork Failure...

I'v had four bottles of commercial wines that have had Cork Failure.

So, I checked my Cut Throat / Mustang wine I produced in 1993 for cork failure.

I found that the wine was moving up the natural corks. I then re corked with Nomacorc.

Natural cork work great but not for as long as I was keeping them. Lol

These are pics of two of my natural corks that I pulled.

 

[garymc]

Avant, is the wine moving up the cork a necessarily bad thing?

I have yet to have a cork failure or any wine go bad, knock on wood. However, my oldest wine is only 3 years so far.

 

[Avantjour]

Cork Failure...

garymc,

You are right, it's not necessarily a bad thing. Some wines are helped by being under cork for some time then re corked.

The four bottles I spoke of that failed, have had most of their wine drained out of the bottles. Fragrant, but messy.

That's why I began looking at my 21 year old wine corks.