Three piece corks

[Rocky]

Has anyone lately experienced difficulties with the L. D. Carlson three piece corks? I am referring to the corks with the natural discs at both ends and the agglomerate cork in between. I used to use them without any issues on insertion or removal. Lately, that is within the last year or so, I have had difficulties in both insertion and removal of these corks. It seems to me that the quality has diminished or Carlson has changed manufacturers.

Anyone else notice this?

 

[sour_grapes]

Has anyone lately experienced difficulties with the L. D. Carlson three piece corks? I am referring to the corks with the natural discs at both ends and the agglomerate cork in between. I used to use them without any issues on insertion or removal. Lately, that is within the last year or so, I have had difficulties in both insertion and removal of these corks. It seems to me that the quality has diminished or Carlson has changed manufacturers.

Anyone else notice this?

Well, yes, but I will have to qualify "lately." For me, I've recently had the bottom disc separate from the middle section while pulling the cork. The rub is, of course, that this is from bottles that I laid down ~2 to 4 years ago. (I have not noticed any problems inserting them.)

I have learned to really screw the corkscrew all the way down to penetrate the last part of the cork, viz., the disc.

 

[Rocky]

"I have learned to really screw the corkscrew all the way down to penetrate the last part of the cork, viz., the disc."

Paul, this is exactly what I have been doing since I began to notice the problem. I usually run the "worm" all the way through the cork so that it pushes against the bottom of the cork. That usually works.

Another thing I have noticed is that there is no longer any printing on the side of the corks. Older corks that I had used had grape vines on the sides of the corks and the newer corks have none. Could be meaningless but there it is. I opened a bottle of Amarone last night that was about 3 years old and it came out slick as can be and the cork was completely in tact.

Something has changed, the process for making them or the manufacturer.

 

[rustbucket]

I experienced twin top corks breaking recently when I began tapping into a batch of wine made 18 months ago; so I started looking for a solution and think I found it.

Two wine batches bottled in the last 6 months were corked with #9 Acquamark All Natural Corks. These corks are only a few bucks more per 100 than the twin tops at my LHB store and visually look like a high quality natural cork, even though they are not. Agglomerated cork pieces are used to fill in what ever natural imperfections these corks natively have, giving them a smooth solid cork appearance.

It will take at least a year before I can declare these corks to be as good as my initial impression tells me they are. I'll happily use them as my solution to the twin cork breaking problem as long as they don't leak and, when extracted, hold together.

 

[Rocky]

I emailed LD Carlson, the company that supplies the corks to Label Peelers (my retailer) and asked if they had changed suppliers or specifications for their three-piece corks. Here is the reply I received:

Good Morning XXXXX,

After some research, it looks like we did change suppliers recently. We haven’t received any complaints about the corks, but it sounds like they’re being prepared the correct way. Are you purchasing 30 count or a bulk quantity?



Thank you,

Cody Mulneix

Customer Service Representative | LD Carlson Company

463 Portage Blvd | Kent, OH 44240

The corks have definitely changed for the worse. I am using Nomacorcs now which are considerably more costly and I wish I could find an alternative to them.

P: 800.321.0315 ext:119 | D: 330.593.6019