Broken Cork Screws

[bcfryer]

IhaveRJS International Merlot and Cab Sav from late 2010 thatI ,my wife and several of our friends are having difficulty extracting corks from the750ml bottles. I have broken twogood quality double handle cork screws ,my wife has had one broken handle,a friend jokingly asked if I had insurance ashe pinched himself and bled all over the place trying to open a bottle of my Merlot. I used the Fine Vine Wines #9 x 1.75" corks. What could be going on here. Seems the older the wines get the more stubborn the corks get. I have 11 full kits aging.Does not look good. Any suggestions?

 

[Wade E]

Are you using the FVW perfect agglomerate? I have never had trouble with these but many problems with other corks. Do you use a hand corker and soak the corks, if so the soaking is the problem.

 

[bcfryer]

I do not soak the corks but I do pour metabisulphitesolution over them to sanitize and the corks may be a bit wet when I push them into the neck of the bottle. Yes these are the fine vine wine perfect agglomerate corks #9 x 1.75 with Georges metal hand corker. So maybe the corks should be dry of the sanitizer. I guess I never noticed this since I never had a bottle age this long before. Generally my bottles are still in the drip dry stage after sanitizing when I bottle and cork. Is it the drying of the sanitizer the sodium metabisulphitearound the cork that makes the corks stick? These corks do seem dryer and more brittle afteruncorking. thanks

 

[fivebk]

Try running a knife around the cork right at the top ( 1/8 in ) then try using your cork screw. The first batch I made I poured K-Meta over them and they stuck just like you are describing. The knife thing did the trick for me. JustBE CAREFUL !!!! I'm not responsible for accidents.

P.S. It's more like poking the cork than trying to cut it.

BOB

 

[bcfryer]

From what George has told me in an emailyou are correct. The wax coating on the corks should not be disturbed by sanitizing or soaking or handling etc. One small detail I missed.

 

[Wade E]

If you are using a hand corker I must say you need to upgrade to a floor corker and they will go in with no problems as they are. When using the hand corker its hard to get them in. If you dont want to do this upgrade you may need to size down to #8 corks.

 

[bcfryer]

Wade , which floor corker? the Italian w/brass or the Portuguese w/nylon iris.

 

[Wade E]

You cant go wrong with either. Ive had my Port corker for 6 years now and probably well over 4,000 corks have gone through it, maybe a little more.

 

[John Prince]

That's a lot of wine. You're my hero.

 

[hannabarn]

I have always tossed my corks into a K-Meta solution when corking and I haven't had any problems. Maybe it's an accident waiting to happen so I guess I will refrain from doing that!!!

 

[Wade E]

The best way to sanitize corks is to just put some kmeta solution in a bucket, put some corks in a colander, put the colander in the bucket and put the lid over it all to let the gases do the work!

 

[ASAI]

I ,too, broke the plastic handles off my 2 handle cork screw removing FVW perfect corks. I followed FVW video for sanitizing by pouring solution over corks in a collander and letting in drain into bottom of seperate pan.
I had no problems with insertion using a hand corker. Using a knife to remove the top 14/" of the cork allowed easy removal with my "modified" no handle corker.
I assumed at the time it was because of it being in a 375ml bottle. That was a early try of a recently bottled wine and haven't brought that batch in to rotation to see if it is a problem on more than one bottle.

 

[ibglowin]

I have experienced the exact same problems with the Perfect Aggolerate corks. I used a colander and bucket underneath it and poured KMETA over them. They are stuck like glue after 18-24 months. Definitely the dried KMETA that is making them stick. They stuck so hard that while trying to remove one I bent the handle on my heavy duty Rogar wine opener!!!!!!

I use a corkador now storing the corks in a used MM AJ bucket. The corks stay dry and the milk jug with KMETA solution keeps them sanitized until ready to use.

 

[vcasey]

I think there was another thread similar to this a long while ago filled with stories of destroyed openers while folks were trying to open bottles of wine. Someone had mentioned an electric wine cork opener and since I had similar challenges opening my wine we picked one up. Since then I have been able to remove even the most stubborn of wine corks.

 

[RickC]

I also switched tothe electric opener. No problems now.