Cracked a bottle of the generally superb 2019 Pataille Bourgogne and upon removing the capsule found a torn cork! Very little resistance when removing this half cork.
Have never seen this before. How would this happen?
The wine was definitely softer than than other bottles.
I can only say what’s typical here. Corks come in sealed bags of 1000. On the bottling line you cut open the bag and dump it into a reservoir. They get channeled down to the automatic corker and the next step is the automatic capsuler. So, on a fully automated line there wouldn’t be much chance for someone to see that. I can’t imagine anything other than the cork coming like that from the producer, which would still be an extremely rare thing.
I agree with Wes’ assessment. There might be another half cork in another bottle from this bottling run.
Another possibility is the corking machine could have broken the cork and half fell into the machinery. Was the jagged side facing the wine or the capsule?
Or not a fully automated line with a mis strike resulting in a broken cork which the cellar person didn’t clear properly. And as Wes says, on to the capsuler.
That’s fascinating. I have never come across that, and I go off half corked all the time.
I’ve never found a half cork, but I recently found an extra cork in the bottom of a bottle.
and i’ve seen a bottle with only a capsule, no cork.
and i’ve seen a bottle with only a capsule, no cork.
Yes, I was going to say that I’d seen that once and I’ve seen a post or two here with photos.
Maybe you have won a lottery or smth?