The photo doesn’t do it justice. You have to look from the very top, down to the mess on the butcher block (hard to see; the cork bits and (essentially) sawdust are the same color as the wood). In 50+ years of pulling corks, I don’t ever remember one that comes close to this.
The bottle was apparently left standing up in the (dry) office for at least 3 years, maybe longer. The wine was fine, old gold color but with only the faintest hint of oxidation, a good accompaniment to the haddock. I strained it through a heavy linen napkin. I usually would use cheesecloth, but it obviously would not have been up to this job.
Dan Kravitz
Amazing the wine was intact. Must admit I have never had one disintegrate to quite that extent.
So Dan, what is your position on storing wine standing up? There have been some claims on this Board by people that I respect that storing bottles standing up is fine even long term. The claim seems to be that the idea of the bottle contents keeping the cork moist is a quaint but false assumption and that if anything, the alcohol in the wine helps to degrade the cork. Due to running out of rack space, I have started storing my overflow bottles standing up. I think it is obvious that your Mayacamas experience could be due to the cork itself, the dry environment, the bottle standing up, or some combination of these. I can only state that I have had some magnums standing up for over ten years and the corks seem fine so far. They have been kept in a cool and somewhat moist environment-my basement wine cellar.
Overall it’s not really about the standing or laying down. It’s about the environment. Too much extremely dry air causes problems.
I always use my Durand for any cork over 15 years old.
all’s well that ends well ?
What are those metal surgical tools doing?? Practicing cork surgery?
Saw this happen to a 2002 JJ Prum GH Spatlese a friend tried opening at a dinner a few months ago. Wasn’t pretty.
Ah, the “romance” of cork. Give me a screwcap!
Penfolds wines from the early 90s had the worst corks. I have had a couple where you insert the cork screw and in the process of pulling the cork all you do is create a circular bore hole in the middle of the cork. The corks crumble to a powder.
My position on storing wine standing up is that it’s still better on its side, but if the wine is not that old, I’m OK for a year or two.
Yes, a very dry environment is the worst. If this had been in my basement in Maine, I don’t think this would have happened.
Markus, the “surgery tools” are the handle of a very thin, very strong paring knife that I tried to run around the circumference (with no success) and a small carving fork that just happened to be sitting on the block.
To Kent Comley, Mayacamas must have been using the same cork supplier as Penfolds. That is exactly what happened.
I actually have a pretty useful corkscrew collection, but I’ve only been in Maine for 22 years and the collection is still in Virginia. It’s coming up next spring.
I don’t think a Durand would have helped. The cork was really bonded to the glass. The paring knife simply would not go into the rim, at least not without using a hammer, not somewhere I wanted to go. Kent Comley’s description is exactly what I had to deal with. At least a third of the cork never made it out, and pouring through the napkin occurred at no more than half the normal flow rate from a fully open bottle.
I’ve got a few more of these. They are now lying on their sides in my basement (horse gone, closing stable door). Maybe, just maybe, the wine will lubricate the cork enough to get it out. But how long will it take? This wine needs to be drunk within the next year or two.
[sigh]
Dan Kravitz