Champagne experts needed - cork question

WINE TALK
#1

Hi all!

I wonder regarding the closure variants and their use from the Champagne houses.

Especially the question which houses still use single-piece corks and for which bottles; Krug comes to mind…agglomerated cork for the regular cuvees vs. real cork for others like CdM, CdA? DP Oenoteque?

And then there is DIAM, but my question regards the solid ones - still used?

Thanks

#2

Champagne seldom has TCA so it may be difficult to find someone who has tracked the information that you are requesting.

#3

Also, any observations/experience on the higher level Champagnes would help…Ambonnay, Mesnil,…

#4

Great QPR’s?

#5

I can’t remember ever seeing a champagne with a single piece of solid cork.

Am I misunderstanding the question?

#6

Same. I’m not saying it wouldn’t be possible, but seeing how big cylinders those uncompresses Champagne corks are, that’s a huge chunk of cork bark.

#7

That was exactly the question…is anyone nowadays using a single piece of cork as a closure.

Any additional info is highly appreciated.

Thanks

#8

Never seen one. Not Krug, not Bolly VVF, not ever.

Is there a particular reason you want to know?

#9

I remember that I had old bottles (from the 50ies) that had single piece corks, but can’t think of recent ones without conglomerated corks.

#10

I used to work in cork, and I’ve seen single piece sparkling done only once. I believe it was Mt. Eden winery making a tiny-volume sparkling cuvee for an anniversary celebration, and they needed roughly a thousand corks. Portugal chamfered large formats for the project.

The cost was 10-15x the price of a grade A champagne cork. I do remember they were happy with the result.

We did small runs for some beers for Bear Republic as well, but they used standard-sized wine corks.

Edit: It was Kathryn Kennedy, not Mt. Eden. I knew it was SCM at least.

#11

Boërl & Kroff use single-piece corks. They’re beautiful to behold and do work extremely well.