[winesnob]

I don't have a corker yet (though I have a bit of a wait before I bottle) and I was wondering which corker people use. Which one gives you the least amount of aggravation and which one can you use by yourself (without a second pair of hands)?

thanks, winesnob.

[masta]

Italian Floor Corker is what I have used since day one and is super!

[pkcook]

So far I've bottled all 100+ bottles of wine I've made with a $5.00 plastic hand corker , and none have leaked. I just purchased a double levered hand corker from a local store on sale and will try it out on my next bottling.

[OilnH2O]

I use a Portugese, double hand corker George sells and it works great -- but can leave indentations and may not always seat the cork the last 1/8" -- check http://www.finevinewines.com//Wiz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID= 1409&KW=indentationfor pictures and a discussion.


After all the discussion I decided to stick with what I have for now -- the shrink cap covers it anyway! You may wish to check, however. George did have the Italian floor corker on sale and the price was mighty tempting!

[winesnob]

So, has anybody used the Portuguese floor corker? It's almost half the price of the Italian one. What's the difference?

[Brandst]

I just purchased the Portuguese floor corker and will be using it to cork my nxt batch by the weekend. I had been using the double lever hand corker and was left with indents that I didn't like and corks not fully seated. As I will be giving away 1/3 to 1/2 of the bottles I want them to look good. Everyone that has the floor corkers, regardless of type, swear by them, I'll chime in after I've used it.

Steve

[bilbo-in-maine]

Everyone that has the floor corkers, regardless of type, swear by
them

Or swear AT them - recall Smurfe's very frustrating time with his before it
was replaced...

[grapeman]

I use a floor corker very much like the Italian floor corker. Same design and same type brass compression jaws. The only difference is that I live about 30 miles from Canada. There is a little country store in Hemmingford Canada that sells the corker for $39.95 in Canadian dollars. That cost me about $35.00 US! I tried to use the double lever corkers that are in most of the kits, but I didn't get uniform cork seating. Now every cork goes in the same distance. I recess them just a little and then wax the ones I want to store for prolonged periods. As a true Winesnob, spring for the little extra, you will never regret it!

[geocorn]

There are 2 primary differences between the Portuguese Floor Corker - $59.99 and the Italian Floor Corker - $99.99.


First, is the brass crimping jaws versus nylon. The brass does a slightly better job at compression. Whether it is noticable or not is up for debate.


Secondly, the base that holds the bottle on the Italian versus is longer and makes it easy to cork 375 ml to 1500 ml bottles. Some of the 375's are too short for the Portuguese version, so something has to be used to put under the bottle to make it fit in the corker.

[Bill B]

I have the Portuguese corkerand I also like it. I ordered the Italian corker (Im Italian) but they were out at the time, however the Portuguese corker works just fine.


Bill