But what do you think those corks would have been like if the wine had stood upright through the years? If the core of the cork let wine penetrate that way, it would have been even more porous for air. My guess is that they would have dessicated and shrunk. I would guess that wine was done for from an aging standpoint either way.
In 30 years of drinking wine, I’ve never come across an old bottle where the cork had soaked through. Soaked up the sides, to be sure. But that’s often because it dried out. I can’t think of one bottle where the cork problem appeared to be too much contact with the wine. I’ve had a number (though not a huge number), where the cork had dried out, though.
When I first started collecting 20 some years ago I met a man who used to insist on laying them down tilted. He kept them in their styros and elevated the boxes. Crazy huh ?
I’m sure Tom Hill will comment when he gets back from California but he recently came across a large stash of his wines that have been stored upright ~20 years. Tom has stated in his tasting notes on those wines that none of the corks had dried out in that time.
Did anybody notice in the SNL skit that the guides talked about their Brunello di Montalcino, yet written on the side of a barrel was the word Nebbiolo? Maybe this was the first sign of “Brunello-gate.”
A. They were using nebbiolo and not syrah. ____
B. They were using Nebbiolo and not Syrah. ____
