Leaking Corks After Bottling

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NoSnob

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I have searched past threads for info about leaking corks. Hopefully my description details will assist in prompt answers.

My WE SE Italian Barolo was aged 9 months in a 6 gal carboy before I bottled it yesterday. It is slightly yeasty but is attaining depth and is quite smooth; no fizz and good clarity; no characteristic brick-red margin but tastes very good. (I even drank a glass with eggplant parmesan last night!)

I bottled it into 8 splits and 26 fifths. Corks were from new bag, composite, #9. I sanitized them by placing in water previously boiling but pulled off the heat and allowed them to sit about 30 minutes (no longer boiling) covered by a plate which kept them below the water's surface. BTW: this method was advised by my LHBS. Then I drained them and used them in my Portugese floor corker. The cork level was uniformly just below the very top of the lip of each bottle.

18 hours after bottling & storing upright: Corks in only 2 bottles were just barely elevated (maybe 1/8") so no problem there. None of the splits leaked. 15 of the 26 fifths show some wine stain and 5 of those 15 have the tops of the corks completely covered by wine stain. None are leaking obvious liquid but the tops of some are a bit sticky. Headspace in all the leaking bottles varies from 1/8" to 3/4". I know that it should have been at least 1" but strangely there seems to be no correlation between small headspace and amount of leaking.

1. Is this problem more likely to be that of inadequate headspace or sanitizing method?
2. If I replace the corks in the leaking bottles, should I use a different sanitizing technique?
3. What is the recommended headspace below the bottom of the cork? The WE kit says two fingers width. For me that's 1 1/2", placing it just at the shoulder of these bordeaux bottles, which seems excessive.

Thanks
NS
 
I have never washed or boiled corks, use the cork-a-dor method to sanitize with a container in a bucket, never have had any type of leaks from my bottles either???? All my corks stay in the bucket until I'm ready to use them.

Al
 
1-1 1/2 is the recomemded head space did you degas before you bottled did you stabilized your wine also before you bottled
 
Alright Dan if your going to go there you had better post the rest of that joke or go to the corner so Al know what your talking about
 
1-1 1/2 is the recomemded head space did you degas before you bottled did you stabilized your wine also before you bottled
The WE instructions did not specify stabilizing or de-gassing immediately prior to bottling. I de-gassed 9 months prior to racking into carboy for aging & added k-meta every 3 months during aging. There was no indication of fizziness in the wine that I could detect by sight or taste.
NS
 
Nine months in the carboy in Florida and you say you did degas, I doubt that was a problem. I think the issue is wetting the corks. Are you using a floor corker? If you are, for sure you don't need to soak. If you're using a hand corker I would use a #8 and insert dry.
 
Since I got my floor corker I have not had leaking problems. I do not soak the corks like you did anymore. Hand corker seemed to be easier if I did it your way. Now I just give them a quick rinse with sanitizer and in they go.
 
Do not soak corks! The best way to sanitize a cork is to get a bucket, a collandor, and a lid for that bucket.Put the collandor over the bucket and pour your corks in the collandor. Then pour some K-Meta solution over the corks and put the lid over all this for a few minutes to let the sulfite gases do their thing as its the gases that do 90% of the work. after a few minutes you cn now use the sanitized corks and even reuse the sulfite solution. This is the next best thing to making a corkador. I think those corks werent that good though. Corks are not the place to try ad save money with winemaking!!!!
 
Do not soak corks! The best way to sanitize a cork is to get a bucket, a collandor, and a lid for that bucket.Put the collandor over the bucket and pour your corks in the collandor. Then pour some K-Meta solution over the corks and put the lid over all this for a few minutes to let the sulfite gases do their thing as its the gases that do 90% of the work. after a few minutes you cn now use the sanitized corks and even reuse the sulfite solution. This is the next best thing to making a corkador. I think those corks werent that good though. Corks are not the place to try ad save money with winemaking!!!!
Wade,

I will try your homemade corkador on these replacements.

I notice that no one has commented on my serious lack of head space.

BTW: I paid $25 for 100 #9 composite corks. They had grapes on them so they had to be good, right? Seriously, does that sound cheap to you? What should I expect to pay for true all cork noncomposite corks?
NS
 
I can guarantee you that your "sanitizing" technique was the source of the problem. Production of compound agglomerated cork involves adding a binder or adhesive agent to cork granules. Different binders are chosen, depending on the qualities desired in the ultimate product (e.g., flexibility, softness, resistance to wear).

You destroyed the binder by placing your corks in near boiling water for 30 minutes. The guy at the LHBS doesn't have a clue as to how to sanitize a cork.

You don't need a 100% natural cork. Agglomerated corks are some of the best closures out there for the money these days.

Sanitize them next time properly by placing them into a corkador for 15 min and then insert them as normal.

I sanitized them by placing in water previously boiling but pulled off the heat and allowed them to sit about 30 minutes (no longer boiling) covered by a plate which kept them below the water's surface. BTW: this method was advised by my LHBS. Then I drained them and used them in my Portugese floor corker.
 
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First, congratulations on you guys not going too DEEP into the Cork Soaking jokes.

Second, NS I soaked my corks (I can't believe I just typed that) in the beginning, first kit or two. They seemed to ooze the moisture out until the corks dried. Took several days. It did look a bit like wine but I really think it was just the extra moisture the corks absorbed. After that I read about the corkerator so I just do that an hour or so before I bottle.

And NS if you do a forum search of cork soakers you'll find several pages of very funny albeit questionable double entendre. Several of us, myself included, are easily amused.
 
What to,l are you using to fill your bottles? The cheap filling wand is easy to use and leaves the perfect amount of head space.
 
What to,l are you using to fill your bottles? The cheap filling wand is easy to use and leaves the perfect amount of head space.
My filling wand was on the fritz - for some reason wayyyyy too slow. (Maybe it was the punted bottles?) Anyway, I went to directly filling from the racking tube. Got no one to blame but me for leaving too little headspace, although I tried blaming my wife. She is a great, long-suffering assistant.
Update: Using a type of corkador I sanitized 18 corks & reinserted, after increasing the headspace. I marked those bottles separately from the others for future reference.
NS
 
First, congratulations on you guys not going too DEEP into the Cork Soaking jokes.

Second, NS I soaked my corks (I can't believe I just typed that) in the beginning, first kit or two. They seemed to ooze the moisture out until the corks dried. Took several days. It did look a bit like wine but I really think it was just the extra moisture the corks absorbed. After that I read about the corkerator so I just do that an hour or so before I bottle.

And NS if you do a forum search of cork soakers you'll find several pages of very funny albeit questionable double entendre. Several of us, myself included, are easily amused.
Mama Mia! I saw the Cork Soaker video - what a scream - definitely over the top.
NS
 
Since (I think) this thread is coming to an end, I am announcing the international premier publication of my WMT signature, gleaned from all I have recently learned. Thanks for your advice to the newb.
NS

There is one immutable law of winemaking: MURPHY'S!! :D
 

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