Champagne Cork Conundrum

WINE TALK
1

Does a narrow Champagne cork infer that the wine was improperly stored?

Every oxidized bubbly I’ve had has a thin/narrow/straight/compacted cork, maybe 1/4 the girth of something like this and straight as an arrow:

Do Champagne corks naturally shrink in bottle, regardless of storage? If so, what causes this?

Would oxygen cause a cork to shrink/narrow?

2

Good question. I’ve wondered this myself. I have had a few times where the cork remained compacted and narrow after opening but the wine was fine. But I don’t open enough of the older stuff to really know any correlation or absence there of.

3

Everyone in the dark on this?

4

Things shrink when plunged into cold, icy water. [tease.gif]

5

Hehe - this doesn’t seem to apply to cod worms however, as they’re quite expansive even once the fish is removed from H2O.

6

Boy, put some hair on that and it’s a picture of Zach.

I’ve had lots of Champagnes where the cork did not rebound and expand and the wines were fine. I think as it ages the elasticity of the wood decreases to the point where it just doesn’t rebound like it would earlier in its life. I don’t think it has anything to do with storage conditions.

I could also be completely wrong.

7

Peter,

Over time, the cork will lose some of its initial elasticity as it slowly takes on the shape of the bottle neck. The more humidity the cork sees, the more likely it is to bounce back out, but as Champagne ages, the cork will become more and more rigid. If you have a very young wine that has a thin cork then that can be a sign of poor handling/storage. You can get cases where the cork becomes to thin and does not seal perfectly hence a damaged wine.

8

I think the cork looks remarkably youthful for a Vintage 1895 Dom Perignon.
[wink.gif]

9

“Pegged” corks have always been a curse on bubblies for me, too. If the cork comes out pegged, it’s usually without an accompanying “pop” sound and the wine is either flat and/or oxidized.

This condition, pegging, is one of the only cork failure modes that I’ve ever seen. It’s the same as in still wines, where the cork fails to expand after extraction, and seems to happen when the cork gets soaked and loses it’s elasticity.

I see it most often in old wines, but just last night I opened a prosecco with this problem, which couldn’t have been in bottle more than a couple of years.

Given that bubbly corks are technical corks, with a real cork disc slice glued to the bottom of an agglomerate, I’m surprised that this happens, but it does. I guess I’d expect it more commonly in a natural cork, probably when natural fissures allow the wine to move up into the cork. That the cork “grain” is cut in opposite directions on the bubbly technical corks, you’d think, would reduce the possiblity of the wine finding it’s way along a fissure and into the agglomerated portion, but who knows? Maybe I’m wrong on this all together.

10

Just to chime in…

I asked our Champagne guy, Jim Duane, about this, and here is his response to Peter’s original question:

“Champagne corks naturally loose their resilience over time, so a narrow “mushroom” cork means that the cork was inserted 4 or more years ago. After a decade on the cork even a good vintage champagne will become oxidized and loose some of its six atmospheres of pressure.”

11

Veronica,

While I agree with Mr Duane that Champagne corks (as well as all other wine corks) lose their resiliency over time, I have a couple of issues with the balance of his statement.
If a cork has lost its resiliency after only four years, that’s a faulty cork and there will be issues with the wine if it’s aged for any length of time.
Additionally, good vintage champagnes will not become oxidized after ten years on the cork unless they are mistreated, have a faulty cork or have some other significant flaw.

12

Ray - what issues to your knowledge could cause the “pegged” cork on a 10 year old wine?

Would it be heat damage or more cork/seal related?

13

I would say it’s a faulty cork that may have been exacerbated by poor storage, but I don’t think a champagne cork could become “pegged” in just ten years solely on poor storage.

And to go back to the original question, while I am always happier to see a champagne cork come out with at least some elasticity, I have on occasion opened older champagnes whose corks are half the size of a thimble but still maintained a proper seal and therefore the champagne itself remained sound and vibrant.

14

Hi Ray,

Point well-made. I do not have the know-how to answer for Jim.
Next time you are in SoCal, come by, meet Jim, and we can all discuss. Over Champagne, of course.

Cheers,
V