[seagrape]

Hi All,

has anyone experienced white specks from the coating on george's corks floating in there wine after it's uncorked? I have noticed this and maybe that does not happen after there is some age on it? also i noticed in addition to the unsightly specks there is build up of the coating on the bottle where the cork sat? do i have a bad run or is this normal?

[LittleLeroy]

I have noticed the build up on the bottles with the last batch of corks I bought. They were #9 1.75 and I did not see that on the #9 1.5 i had before that. Not sure what it was but I still drank the wine.

[seagrape]

well i am glad it's just not me, i have to bottle a few carboys question is i really do not want to have to explain to people what the white stuff is floating in there wine. Maybe i'll give george a call.

[Goodfella]

Yeah... You should call George.


Let us know what happens.

[tdeyette]

I recently bottled some wine with "George's" corks and also noticed a wax like buildup inside the neck of the bottle. I have not opened any yet so I cannot comment on if there were any white specks in the wine. I assumed it was a light wax coating on the corks, perhaps there was a little too much wax?

[seagrape]

I called george and he said that there is a paraffin coating on the corks and if you notice it in your wine when you open it to let him know as he did have some corks that this happened with.

[Big Ike]

Thanks for checking that out.

I've been reusing some bottles lately and noticed the neck not draining like other bottles after brushing and rinsing. Now it all makes sense.

[geocorn]

All corks have a parafin coating. The problem is primarily two-fold, age of the cork and soaking the corks.


The parafin coating starts breaking down in about 1 year. We discovered this a year ago and are now rotating our corks to make sure they remain fresh. We go through about 10,000 corks a month, so it is easy to keep them fresh. For this reason, I don't recommend buying anymore corks than you will use in 6 months. This is not just and issue with my corks. It is an issue with all corks, agglomerate, natural and synthetic.


The second problem is soaking corks. Soaking corks is not a good practice. Not only does it soak off the parafin, but it softens the cork which will lead to leaking and bacterial infection in natural corks.


Most of the other corks available, even the Nomacorc, will only protect your wine for a maximum of 3 years. My corks will protect your wine for at least 5 years. Some of my wines are now 8 years old and I have not had one leak yet!


If you have any corks from me that are questionable, please let me know and I will gladly replace them.


As an aside, if you soak your corks in sulfite before inserting them, the specks could be from the sulfites.

[Gekko4321]

I bought my corks from Northern Brewer and I can attest that all of these agglomorated corks seem to be dropping white specks into the wine. I ordered a new batch and tested those and still same problem. So if agglomorated corks are dropping white specks due to parafin wax and nomacorcs are not good for aging, what are people doing to get a presentable wine??

[Flem]

I use the bi-disc corks. A cork layer on each end with agglomerate in the middle.