I hate fake corks

Because of them I’ve broken two lever screwpulls and my 40 year old Ah-so.

What’s a fake cork? Plastic ones?? A screwtop?

in this case composite-but I don’t like plastic.

How does the cost of those things stack up against all the corked bottles you’ve poured down the drain?

The money wasted on one corked wine will buy you a lot of screw pulls. Curious why one would ever use an Ah So on a composite cork? I use it only for shrunken or otherwise fragile older natural corks.

I’m in agreement about plastic, though. It may not be logical, but I don’t like the thought of plastic in the wine.

At a guess, with the normal corkscrew broken, the only other *option available. It’s one reason we keep hold of a rubbish old ‘winged’ corkscrew, as it seems to handle such abominations ok, and even if it didn’t, it’s of no value to us.

I certainly would avoid plastic corks wherever possible, but a shame there is no standard symbol on a wine label to denote what seal is used - which ought to have been in place by now.

Regards
Ian

*Arguably there is a better, albeit still tricky option, to push the ‘cork’ into the bottle. It will probably make a mess, but that can be cleaned up.

Keith-I have a very low % corked.

Sarah-“lever”-$100@-new type $200…

(ah-so) lever type didn’t work or regular scewpull. Next time I’ll use my sword

I do my best to buy only cork bottles but more and more Fake corks are being used.

Pushing the cork OUT is easier and less messy than pushing one in.
Obviously, this method should be reserved for wines without sediment.

In context, this was ‘better’ than breaking an ah-so on it !

If by “fake” cork you are referring to Diam (and others) my question would be how is that you are breaking these pullers? We have used Diam for two vintages and I have never had anyone at the winery break a puller (and we’re generally talking about $7 promotional pullers) in easily over 1,000 bottles opened. I have also not heard of this issue with waiters and somms. Perhaps you could be specific about what it is you are opening and what the breaking issue is that is occurring. I would be curious since this has not come up before.

i use port tongs exclusively now because of this problem.

Many are saying that it’s the technology of the future.

Jim-(ah-so)-the wine was Shaffer red shoulder chard. and the puller bent-I couldn’t get it correct(spring steel?).

Okay. Looked it up and they do use Diam. I don’t know. Your experience sounds somewhat unique to me. Again, been present for hundreds and hundreds of bottles opened with both Diam 10 and Diam 30 with no issues. I have multiple friends and work folks in the restaurant and wine business and I have never heard of this issue. I also cannot see why it would happen. They are still made out of cork. Maybe they had some particular seal put on it (it does not seem that way from what I read on their site). I can’t explain it. It seems to be a somewhat unique experience to me.

Is this a test to simulate travel shock?

DIAM is an engineered wine bottle closure, not a fake cork. And I’m with Jim – I’ve never had a problem extracting one. But those wretched plastic closures from a decade or so ago, those could be be-otches to open.

Maybe counterfeit opener with inferior metal?

And you cannot lie?

Lever screwpull!