Premium Cork 9 x 1-3/4 30 ct Altec Cork 9 x 1-3/4 30 ct Synthetic Cork 9 x 1-1/2 30 ct 1st Quality 9 x 1-3/4 30 ct 1st Quality 9 x 1-1/2 30 ct 1st Quality 8 x 1-3/4 30 ct 1st Quality 7 x 1-3/4 30 ctWine Bottle Corks
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Corks are made from the bark of the cork oak, Quercus Suber, from Portugal which has 30% of the worlds cork trees. The increased popularity of winemaking has resulted in a much wider range of cork choices than ever before.
Agglomerated corks are made from chipped cork pieces ground to a specific size and glued together with non-reactive polyurethane glue. Inexpensive and easy to handle, these are suitable for wines that will be held for six months to a year.
Synthetic corks are made from inert synthetic resins, and while some wineries have tried them, mainly for short-term wines, they haven't proven effective for all purposes. They have to be put in with a heavy-duty corker, and can only be extracted with a good worm-type corkscrew wielded by a strong hand. Further development is needed before the home wine maker could put them to use.
Natural cut corks are just that; simply punched out from cork bark. They rely on the density and elasticity of the natural cork bark to seal the bottle. Depending on the quality of the cork, you can expect your wine to last from 3 years to more than 10. Another thing that comes in to play when choosing a cork is the bevel. This is the tapered edge that some of the less expensive corks have around the top and bottom of the cork. This is to allow easier insertion with hand held corkers. The thing to remember is that the bevel actually reduces the amount of surface area in contact with the neck of the bottle. This contact is what prevents the passage of wine past the cork. If you have a 1 inch long cork, but 1/8 inch is beveled off of each end, it is effectively only 3/4 inch long.
Choosing Corks
How long should your cork be? Which cork is right for you? Look realistically at how long you expect to store your wine before drinking, and figure out how much cork fits in your budget. A good rule of thumb is 'you get what you pay for.' The cheapest cork isn't always the best deal, and if you do decide to keep some bottles for the future, you may find yourself having to re-cork them in a few years. In addition, if you are making a wine kit you intend to drink within the next 6 months, a very long cork might be a waste of money.
Preparing Your Corks
If you are using a high quality, iris-jawed floor corker there is no need to soak or sulfite any of the corks that Leener's sells. Simply insert them dry.
If you are using a small, hand-held corker (single or double-lever types) you may need to prepare your corks by soaking them in warm water for 20 minutes. If you have trouble getting corks to pass through your hand-held corker, you may want to try adding 1 cup glycerin to every four liters of warm water that you use for soaking. This ensures that the corks get enough moisture to lubricate their passage through the corker, but they won't be over soak and crumble.
While some books talk about boiling and long soaking in sulfite solutions, these are very bad ideas. Cork is tree bark, and boiling it turns it to mush. Mush won't seal your bottles. Long soaking does the same thing. Corks can soak up sulfite solutions and transfer them to the wine. Once you have opened a bag of corks, you may need to take special care of the unused corks.
The trouble with handling very dry corks is that it's tough to judge how long you can soak them before they become mushy. However, there is a nifty technique that you can take advantage of, if your corks are brittle either from age or low humidity storage. You can construct a 'cork humidor'.
You will need a sanitized plastic bucket and lid, an empty wine bottle, and a 1.25% solution of metabisulphite (eight teaspoons of metabisulphite powder dissolved in a gallon of cool water). Fill the wine bottle halfway with the solution, and carefully stand it up in the bottom of the bucket. Gently pour your corks into the bucket, filling the space around the bottle, and put the lid on tightly. Leave the bucket in a room temperature area for about a week. In that time the liquid evaporating from the wine bottle will raise the humidity in the bucket in turn raising the humidity in the corks, making them pliant enough for easy insertion. The sulfur dioxide gas coming off the liquid will prevent the growth of moulds or spoilage organisms, keeping the corks sanitary. No further treatment of the corks will be necessary before bottling. If you want to store your corks this way, replace the solution in the bottle every four weeks, and keep the lid tightly sealed. That way your corks will always be ready for use.
Choosing and Using a Corker
There are several types of corkers available. We highly recommend a floor corker with jaws that compress the cork like an iris. Other corkers (twin lever, single lever, and compression corkers) rely on human muscles to compress the cork and push it into the bottles.
Iris jaw floor corkers, while more expensive, use simple levers and mechanical advantage to carefully compress the corks and insert them precisely into the bottles. Also, they hold the bottles steady in a spring-Ioaded base. They are really worth the extra money.
After the corks have been inserted into the bottles it's a good idea to dry the top of the cork off with a cloth. This will prevent any moisture there from forming mould on the top of the cork. While a spot of mould on the top of the cork wouldn't hurt your wine, it does look unpleasant.
No. 7 x 1¾ |
All Beer Bottles |
All Floor and Bench Corkers |
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No. 8 x 1¾ |
Bellisma Bottles |
All Floor and Bench Corkers |
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No. 9 x 1½ |
1.5 liter Wine Bottles |
All Floor and Bench Corkers |
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No. 9 x 1¾ |
1.5 liter Wine Bottles |
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No. 9 x 1¾ |
1.5 liter Wine Bottles |
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No. 9 x 1¾ |
1.5 liter Wine Bottles |
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No. 9 x 1½ |
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For those of you using a floor or bench mount corker, any size cork will work. You should choose your cork based first on the size recommended for the bottle you are using and second for the length of time you will age the wine.