Put A Wine Cork In It
Wine Corks are made from cork material from the cork oat tree. Corks elasticity makes it suitable for bottle stoppers on grape wine bottles, which represent about sixty percent of all cork products.
There are several different types of wine corks.
Naturally Cut Wine Corks - these are cut directly from harvest cork bark, and rely on the elasticity of the cork to seal the bottle. These are the highest quality corks and therefore are the most expensive. They tend to last for a long time and should be used on fruit wines that is going to be stored for a long time.
Synthetic Wine Corks
Many cheaper bottles of wine are now stopped with synthetic corks, however although they are becoming popular, they tend to destroy expensive corkscrews, and a main concern is their ability to be able to preserve a bottle of wine if left un opened for a long time period; it has been claimed that synthetic corks can lose their elasticity and this oxygen can get into the bottle. They do not dry out or rot, however.
Agglomerated Wine Corks – These are man made by chipping raw cork into pieces and gluing them back together into the size desired. They are less expensive than natural corks. They are good for citrus wine that is stored for less than one year.
Plastic Champagne Wine Corks - These corks are designed to be used with champagne bottles. The cork along with the champagne bottle is designed to make a very strong seal to withhold the pressures produced by champagne.
What Size Cork to use
The standard wine bottle has an opening of 18.5 mm and the standard cork has been designed to fit the standard wine bottle. Cork sizes are designated by a number and length and the number corresponds to the diameter of the cork. The #9 cork, is the standard diameter cork for wine bottles with a typical lengths of 1.5 inches, and 1.75 inches. Shorter corks of 1.5 inches are recommended for less than one year old and longer corks of 1.75 inches are recommended for wines that are older than one year. The #8 cork is the standard size cork for champagne bottles and the #7 cork is the standard size cork for beer bottles.
Clearly there are several different types of wine cork available, as well as varying sizes and all of these should be taken into account when choosing how to stop a bottle when preserving a bottle of wine.
Posted on: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 at 5:56 am 
Food & Drink. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.