Richard Holmes (of Ciel du Cheval) told me today that he suggests I consider replacing the corks on his wines after 10 years. Does anyone do this? Is there DIY wine corking equipment at Sur Le Table or Kitchen Kaboodle or something like that? Any thoughts/advice? I like the idea, but would be scared to try.
Sort of a silly thing to say unless he expects you to buy a stand-up corker for a couple of hundred dollars. Maybe a home winemaking shop would sell you a small quantity of new corks for cheap.
If you are in the area bring them by and I’ll recork them for you (as long as you don’t mind Paetra-branded corks). In Europe the common practice is to add a small dose of SO2/KMBS solution when recorking. whatever you do, I would recommend chilling the bottles before pulling old corks to slow down any potential oxidation.
Cheers,
Bill
Personally I think it’s a really bad move, for the following reasons:
- Cost
- Makes them unsaleable should you (or your family) ever want to sell
- Doubles your odds of encountering TCA
- Other effects on the wine (see a recent thread - IIRC focused on Borgogno - here about disappointing experiences when wineries do this)
- dosage of SO2 (or take the risk and ‘go natural’
![[wink.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/04707e6a7bbb03e0153e349d8a9270d30e1e9525.gif "wink")
If you buy into the risk of corks consistently failing after 10 years (I don’t, but cork failure increases such that - say - 30 years represents a noticeable additional risk), then buy screwcap sealed wines.
Whilst cork infuriates me at times, and I’d prefer the majority of my wines to be screwcap sealed, I wouldn’t endorse Mr Holmes’ suggestion at all. I have bottles over 50 years old where the cork is still providing an effective seal from the air - or at least the modest ullage suggests so.
regards
Ian
It may be the single most stupid idea I’ve ever heard expressed by anyone in the wine trade. If he can’t trust his corks for more than 10 years, he needs to use a better goddamn closure or pay for round trip shopping for customers to send him the bottles so he can do it and take financial responsibility for any oxidation or other issues resulting from the recorking.
Scott, if Richard thinks it’s a good idea, how about offering to drive your Ciel du Cheval wines out to West Richland and have them recork and recapsule the bottles for you? Looks like it’s only 3.5 hours from the PRP. I’d worry most about not pulling a vacuum before inserting a new cork more than anything else. A small corker with a vacuum pump would be a few thousand, I believe. Floor models without vacuum are just over a hundred.
Also, corks should last longer than 10 years. You could avoid some of the “soaked cork” problems by keeping your bottles standing up instead of on their sides or upside down. It’s the biggest myth in the world of wine that the cork needs to be touching the wine for the cork not to dry out. I know that’s a controversial view that goes against 200+ years of wine history (and against an entire industry of wine racks and wine cellars). I have a very good friend who owns wineries in OR and WA who has bottled his wine with the bottles standing up since the early '90s, and not a single problem with oxidation. Another Napa/Sonoma winery has done the same since the early '90s, no problems there either. Just some things to think about.
Ed,
Interesting concept. I’ve had a number of my wines - not tercero, but others that I’ve purchased - that have been standing up for a number of years. What I’ve found is that the corks do tend to be a bit more brittle, and usually break about 2/3 of the way down when trying to remove with standard corkscrews. No issues with the wines - but problems with the cork.
YMMV
Larry, since I’m such a non-believer in keeping corks wet, and other heavenly things, I tend to blame dry/brittle corks on the ambient environment. However, dry and brittle corks, for the most part, don’t really come out of the bottle easily. Wet/soaked corks usually come right out with ease. It made me wonder which cork is keeping air out of the bottle and wine in the bottle more efficiently. I know what you’re going to say, screwcaps are the answer!
I’m a little surprised at the vitriol. Economically speaking, re-corking makes tons of sense. You don’t have to have too many bottles go bad to recoup the cost of a stand corker or whatever it is that I need. Richard did say obviously corks can last decades, but, essentially, do you want to take a risk or be proactive?
No vitriole here, but conceptually I’m more in line with that Mike is saying. More than half of my meager cellar is 10+ years old. If I have to starting replacing corks, I think I ditch this passion and just keep to drinking young Kabinett under screw cap. Hope I’m not jinxing myself, but the cork failure rate that I experience, even with Bordeaux 25+ years of age, is not worth sweating over.
We have several times compared original and recorked bottles … in all instances the bottles with original cork were definitely better, or in one case kind of equal, but different …
Most of the times the recorked bottles showed more or less oxidation, a rum-pot-like quality or muted fruit, while the original bottles, even if the fill level was much lower, were more lively and expressive, also when there were also hints of oxidation due to low fill level …
Sure comparisons are difficult and certainly not taken 1:1 because except one occasion all bottles came from totally different sources …
Gerhard’s experience highlights my concern about exposing the wine to oxygen during recorking unless you have special equipment to do this in an inert gas environment. It would be a small exposed area for a brief period of time. I wonder how much oxygen would be taken in compared to what would have been in the wine when originally bottled.
The amount of O2 may be tiny, but it will be captured inside the bottle below the new cork afterwards - and it has time to react usually for months/years/decades - THAT´s IMHO the major problem. You won´t get the air out unless you overfill the bottle with added wine (and if: what kind of wine?) and press the cork heavily into …
(I have no experience with bottles recorked under inert gas …)
I am in phase with Gerhard. Recorking, even with the most efficient method, changes the wine which will age differently and give a wine which has less qualities.
I have met in Paris the representative of Penfolds Grange for U.K who told me that he would organise a meeting of recorking the Penfolds of amateurs in London at a certain date. And he suggested that I come with my bottles for this operation. And I answered : “never, never, never”.
If you have doubts about certain corks, drink the wine ! Because the recorked wine will never have the same quality.
Whenever I meet a winemaker, I suggest that he never offers to recork wines.
Some of you who cellar wines could make an easy experiment. If you intend to keep a case in order to drink it in five or ten years. take one bottle of the case. You just open it, wait 30 seconds and recork the bottle with the same cork. And in 5 or ten years, you will try the recorked with another bottle, and you will see the difference.
At best it could taste the same, but older.
Most probably it will be more flat.
One rule : when you think it would be good to recork a wine : drink it !!! ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
This is absolute nonsense. I can’t believe anyone is taking it seriously.
François is correct, again.
Scott
Likewise I’m somewhat bemused by your use of the term ‘vitriol’.
I’ve listed a number of reasons, but picking up specifically on cork taint (TCA), let’s say TCA occurs in 3% of cork sealed wines.
Let’s take a 35 year old wine, so the chance of getting a wine free from taint is 97%
Now let’s cork it at bottling and then re-cork it at 10, 20 and 30 years old (i.e. 4 corks). The chances of it now being taint free are .97 x .97 x .97 x .97 = .8853 i.e. 88.5%
So from 3% of bottles of wine having to go down the drain, we’re now at 11.5% of bottles of wine.
Then let’s say we (or our family) need to sell that wine. We take it to an auction house (other than certain auction houses familiar to readers of WB), and they take one look at the removed capsule and replacement cork. “I’m sorry but there is no way we can sell this wine, nor would anyone buy it. We have no way of knowing what wine is actually in that bottle” or “Have you ever heard of Rudy Kurniawan?”
Others are explaining clearly the concerns about the effect of oxygen exposure, and remember these comments reflect a single re-corking, not repeating it every decade.
regards
Ian
First of all, I would go with François, but over the last few years, I have drunk about 200 wines between 25-60 years old. Most of these were less-than-fancy Italian wines, with relatively short and probably inexpensive corks. Even so, certainly less than 5 of them showed any flaws that could be attributed (but not necessarily) to an old cork. Even if they were stuck, or almost fell out, or were soaked, or nearly crumbled on removal, they apparently did their job of keeping the wine in and the air out well enough for several decades. I would suggest that (at least) for most wines expected to be stored for 20-80 years, a top-qualify, and long cork should not need to be replaced unless (perhaps) it is seen to leak.
I think there are a couple of things at play here, and no, Ed, I’m not going to say what you think I will 
First off, if you are concerned with TCA, then the age of the cork does not matter whatsoever. That is not the OP’s issue, but others have brought it up - once a wine is corked, it will always remain so.
Second, when wines are recorked, isn’t wine often added to make up for ullage? It seems to me that I read this with Penfolds or others who do this regularly. This in and off itself brings up ‘issues’.
Third and equally important, not only do you need to worry about the oxidation occuring when opening the bottle to add the new cork, but the new cork itself will have oxygen imbedded into its cells. Therefore, it will release this oxygen over time when aging, something the old cork would have done but most likely would have completed doing.
I am in complete agreement with others - if you are concerned, drink the darn bottle!!!
Cheers
I wouldn’t recork, for all the issues mentioned. But, if you did recork, wouldn’t it make sense to add a small amount of SO2?
-Al
We drank a 1915 Bourdy Poulsard a couple of weeks ago that was recorked and re-filled (apparently with 1915 Poulsard). I assumed that it was given an SO2 dose, but I don’t know for sure. It also had very little sediment which I didn’t expect and made me wonder. In any case, the wine was superb, which it may not have been if left under the OG cork and with substantial ullage.
Given the choice between drinking an enjoyable 100 year old wine with a little make-up applied and a dead one is for me no choice at all. Even great paintings need to be cleaned-up once in a while.
Cheers,
Bill