Cork question

[AAASTINKIE]

I bought some synthetic corks to try, ummm..well actually it would be a
case of 2000 corks..anyway, they weren't working very well, folding
under so I switched back to GEO's amalgamated finevinewines corks, they
always go in perfectly, I think they are "slippery" anyway, the problem
I had was I was pushing them in too slow, so the rest of you newbee's
remember to push the cork in as fast as you can, it starts to expand
right away and if your going slow like I was it catches on the bottle
and the bottom folds under and looks bad especially if your using
clear bottles. ( the synthetic corks are really hard and the ones I had
require a iris corker).

THE QUESTION:

Do I need to lay the bottles down with synthetic corks?

(I bought them cause when you give wine away, most people don't lay the bottles down anyway)

 

[peterCooper]

I wouldn't think so. THe purpose of laying the bottles down is to keep the
cork moist so that it doesn't dry out and allow air passage. A sythetic cork
is not going to need that.

Interestingly enough I have a story, kind of, about that. I bought a
complete equipment kit from another place (i.e. not George, so George,
you can relax. This is a dig at the competition

) A pack of 30 corks
came with it of which I used a few, having already bought some corks
from George and mixed them up.

I had 24 375 mL bottles that I used the original corks and about 16 750
ml bottles on which I used Georges. After just a month of laying down,
the original corks had 1) leaked and two allowed the wine into the cork
about 1/4 inch, taking on the wine color. Georges corks had a slight rose
tint on the surface.

I doubt the bad corks would last much more than six months before they
would start to have problems.

The moral of this story is.... I dunno other than good corks are worth the
investment.Edited by: peterCooper

 

[geocorn]

Good corks are very well worth the investment! You don't want all of your hard work to leak away.