Corks in Wine

YES! This happened to the last three bottles of Gran Marnier I bought. It's the worst!

Are you storing the bottles upright? Because they should be laying horizontally, to keep the cork wet. When it dries out is when it breaks and also doesn't do its job.

That pisses me off, too. It doesn't happen to me very often though. When it does I pour the wine through a fine strainer and the cork will be gone.

This very rarely happens to me and I buy wine at every price. When it DOES happen, if its a newly purchased bottle - take it back to the shop! It's unacceptable.

Use a corkscrew instead of your teeth.

The corkscrew only pushes the cork down into the bottle, which then ends up floating in the wine, R5.

Not if you know how to operate it, it doesn't.

It's time to replace corks with screw cap tops.

I don't understand how people can keep "100 year old" bottles of wine, and not have the cork completely disintegrate.

I've had 2 year old bottles of wine, and the cork just breaks right off.

I buy wines in cartons. Problem solved.

[quote] I buy wines in cartons. Problem solved.

Thanks, Captain Obvious.

There are good wines with screw tops but its not meant to keep! Few people buy wine to keep and those who do, manage to have bottles age fine with cork - you just need a dark, still, humid, cool, cellar.

I can't recall ever having an issue breaking the cork. I screw the spiral metal into the cork put the bottle between my legs and pull. It's all in the technique.

[quote] I can't recall ever having an issue breaking the cork.

We're not talking about the cork breaking.

We're talking about the cork disintegrating into little pieces, because it has lost its integrity.

A fresh, new cork won't break.

However, after aging a while, the cork starts breaking down and rotting, basically just crumbling into little bits.

You don't need to use a pull screw. Get one that lifts the cork out of the bottle as you continue screwing, or this scissors kind.

You just need to soak-a the cork, OP. The great-a thing about the cork soaking, is that while you are-a soaking the cork, you can also massage-a the grapes, until the cork is ready.

You need one of these OP. The Ah So wine opener - it's what soms use when opening old bottles or when a cork breaks.