Just received a 1988 Spring Mountain Cab from auction and it has a noticeably soft cork. How do you approach that? Drink ASAP?
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A cork can be a bit dried out and crumbling even at only 10 years of age. As long as ullage is ok and there is no sign of leakage I wouldn’t get too excited that the bottle is compromised. If you think the bottle leaked just when it was shipped recently then maybe open it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t worry about it. And use a Durand for old bottles - and always have one around in case the cork starts to crumble - you can salvage a cork by aborting a regular corkscrew and using the Durand.
Soft is the opposite of this.
I recently opened a bottle of 2007 Toro with a dry and crumbly cork. No way to get the cork out with normal extraction. As the worm went in it just crumbled to bits and dust. Wine was fine.
A soft cork would have me thinking more about premature oxidation. The liquid contact may have moved way up the neck and exposed points of access to air. I’ve had many wines that were intact with a soft cork as long as the upper part maintained its integrity. But this would be a Durand job for sure as soft corks are vulnerable to cracking off on the pull.
I would tend to want and drink it now before it has a chance to worsen, if its not all ready gone
Soft cork sounds like potential extended heat damage that caused the wine to saturate the cork. Much more concerning than a bit of seepage which could be due to a natural cork flaw and often actually dries and seals the cork to the glass and helps preserve the wine.
If the cork is soft because of moisture then agree it might be a leaker - but there should be other signs of that. It kind of begs the question as to how do you know the cork is soft unless you already opened the bottle?
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I know the cork is soft because when I press the top, its soft…
No foil or you took it off? - unless it looks like wine leaked through it not too sure how that can be a problem.
Foil is on there, I’m pressing the cork through the foil and it feels slightly mushy / doesn’t bounce back to its original shape the way I’d expect it to
This is a 1988. I am neither surprised nor particularly worried by a soft cork. Those mid to late ‘80s Spring Mountains can be very nice. I would stand it up for a few weeks to let sediment really settle to the bottom, give it a gentle decant and go.
If you’re just pushing the foil down, it could simply be the air space between the top of the cork and the foil itself. I’m assuming you’ve already accounted for that possibility though, as I’m not trying to be a DB by this comment.
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I guess it would be a “soft open”
Sorry.
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Thanks - I think I’m going to wait for the next reasonably cool evening and pop this open
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I would take the foil off, and check for leakage.