I bought some older bottles from auction same owner. The bottles regardless of producer have their corks sinking into the neck a couple of mm. Is this from a lack of humidity, or just unlucky coincidence?
Maybe he lived in Denver?
or at the bottom of the ocean.
I can never get the differences figured out…
From my experience this indicates nothing about the wine.
However, I have had two bad experiences with sunken corks [over 40 years of collecting]. Both corks were floating in the wine itself! ![[cray.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/8/853b6e76c6e8406be77a6727c2a27ad1672678b3.gif "cry"){kind=small}
[One wine was actually drinkable!]
Paul
Benjamin,
We categorize this at Benchmark as a “depressed cork” bottle condition. The auction should have noted this, as it is a recognized as something that should be noted with older wines.
However, personally I see depressed corks as a big flag for a discount on the bottle with very little risk for the wine inside. I personally seek-out these bottles because I can often buy them at a cheaper price and have yet to be disappointed. I’ve had an customer explain why they stay away - having something to do with air pressure and a flaw in the cork - but again, my experience doesn’t bare this out.
Another thing to keep in mind - we have had wines from specific producers, sometimes from specific vintages, that have a very high incidence of depress corks. That led us to believe that there may sometimes just be an issue with how the cork was inserted in the first place.
Had an '82 Roumier Bonnes Mares the other day that had a depressed cork, I initially held some fears for it…
The wine was fine (very good in fact), but did look more developed than a similar bottle 6 months or so ago…
None of the bottles have shown any seepage. Some of them I plan to keep for years, and was wondering if I should be concerned / crack them now. Thanks for the replies.
That’s interesting that they were from different producers yet from the same owner.
I still think it is weird. BTW, I like the Kristi Bug blog.
Thank you! 