Lafitte Cork

[dcbrown73]

My last order was in 2014. Admittedly, I've had a few dried out corks of late, but nothing too bad - and I wasn't super careful with storage. With this order, I plan to break it into mini batches of 100 and seal them up in Foodsaver bags. @tonyt did that a while back, but he hasn't been posting for a while, so I'm not sure how effective it was for him. Sounds like a good idea though.

Hmm. I keep my corks in a gallon ziplock baggy. When I went to bottle my Merlot and Cab, I noticed slight discolorations in the cork and when I tested one and pulled it back out. The slightly discolored areas were breaking apart. I immediately put off bottling and ordered more corks. This is after only a year of sitting in the ziplock bag.

It makes you wonder if using foodsavers would help. Air tight is definitely better than just a plain ziplock, but how much better vs corks drying out. I know Mike said he kept the humidity up and he too still had a problem.

I really want branded corks, but I really don't want wasteful spending or even more, wasting natural cork.

 

[GreginND]

I have asked Lafitte to package one of my orders (2000 corks) into sealed bags of 500 so I could keep them fresh and sanitized longer. They were happy to accommodate me.

 

[Boatboy24]

UPSanta came today. Unreal. I got a call from Nate the other day saying the corks were ready and they just needed payment info to ship. I've been a little distracted and haven't given that to them yet. But my corks still showed up.

 

[dcbrown73]

Nice.

I emailed them about a week or a week and a half ago and they never responded.

How longs does it take to have a branded cork to be made (including creating the die)

 

[geek]

@dcbrown73 If I knew it I would’ve bought a batch with you if you wanted.
Recently I needed corks and my friend in Danbury, whom I split the previous purchase with, still had too many and didn’t want to buy more.
I ended up buying 100 pack from Label Peelers.

 

[dcbrown73]

@dcbrown73 If I knew it I would’ve bought a batch with you if you wanted.
Recently I needed corks and my friend in Danbury, whom I split the previous purchase with, still had too many and didn’t want to buy more.
I ended up buying 100 pack from Label Peelers.

I wonder if you can buy 1,000 corks with two different branding on them. We could split 500/500. (or one branded and the other plan)

 

[geek]

I wonder if you can buy 1,000 corks with two different branding on them. We could split 500/500. (or one branded and the other plan)

You can check with them but when you buy the die I think they apply that to a whole 1,000 batch, don't recall for sure.

 

[dcbrown73]

You can check with them but when you buy the die I think they apply that to a whole 1,000 batch, don't recall for sure.

I will email them again, but they ignored my email last time.

 

[Boatboy24]

Nice.

I emailed them about a week or a week and a half ago and they never responded.

How longs does it take to have a branded cork to be made (including creating the die)

Wow, that's very surprising. I remember when I first reached out to them - it was via email. I had a response with pricing in under an hour. I think it was a couple weeks the first time to get the die made and the corks done. This time, it was around a week from the time I called to when they called telling me they were ready.

 

[Johnd]

Put in my order with Lafitte, bucked up and went for their highest quality corks, and requested sealed / sulfited bags of 250 instead of 1000. As usual, they were happy to comply, produced and delivered the corks quickly. I’ll finish up the last of the older corks and get into these new ones during my next bottling session.

 

[Ajmassa]

On my second 1000 ……. Great company as others have said and they make a great product as well!

My winemaking has changed in the last few years so that I make about 4-5 white kit wines during the year but then bottle about 250 bottles of wine made from fresh grapes each Summer. That works out to almost 3 years. I keep them in a sealed Corkador with KMETA and they stay pliable/soft to the end.

View attachment 21348

So 3 yrs worth of corks in a sealed corkador container for the duration. I’m assuming you need to change out the solution every so often correct?
What kind of sealed container are you using if you don’t mind my asking? I use 2gal bucket with the typical rubber gasket lid- but no more than a few weeks. Never really thought to use it long term until now.

 

[ibglowin]

I use a couple of old Mosti Mondial All Juice buckets I saved. They are six gallons and have a rubber gasket in the lid that seals the top on tight as a drum. I just use my nose. If the smell of KMETA is not strong I just add more to the half gallon jug in the middle of the bucket.

So 3 yrs worth of corks in a sealed corkador container for the duration. I’m assuming you need to change out the solution every so often correct?
What kind of sealed container are you using if you don’t mind my asking? I use 2gal bucket with the typical rubber gasket lid- but no more than a few weeks. Never really thought to use it long term until now.

 

[Brettanomyces]

Does anyone have a current price list, by chance? I sent an email to them 3 weeks ago, but never got a response.

 

[ibglowin]

I think the fastest way to get a response is to just call them and speak to a sales rep. They sent me out a price list and tons of samples via Fedex overnight IIRC.

Toll Free: (800) 343-2675
Telephone: (707) 258-2675

 

[Brettanomyces]

I'll give it a shot. Thanks!