Cork Recommendations

[Longtrain]

I've been wining like crazy and will have a considerable amount of bottling to do in next 6 months. Probably close to 30 gallons of which 50% will be port. I have used the standard "2 year" corks for a while and they serve me well, until I realize that a lot of this wine will go 4-5 years or so.

What cork is recommended to go comfortably to 5 years post bottling. I will squirrel away a few bottles of port from each batch to see what long storage will do maybe up to 10 years.

Thanks,

Tony

 

[richmke]

My personal favorite is Nomacorc. If you go with real cork, you need a high quality cork for 5-10 years.

 

[wineforfun]

What is the "standard 2yr. cork"?

I always use a 1 3/4" #9 basic agglomerated cork.

 

[MrKevin]

I use #1 grade #9 real corks but there about 50 cents each where I live.

 

[Boatboy24]

I was using the "perfect agglomerate" corks from FineVineWines - the #9x1 3/4. They've been great. If you can use a larger quantity (1,000 or more), I highly recommend Lafitte Cork and Capsule.

 

[Longtrain]

Thanks for the direction. #9 -1 3/4 looks good.

 

[garymc]

1. What Mrkevin said. Real corks for the long term aging and improving in the bottle.
2. Dual disk agglomerated for wine that could end up going 2 years.
3. Agglomerated for wine that will be consumed soon.
Nomacorcs are fine for long term storage, but they won't age the wine like real cork. I use an assortment of different types. If I have a five gallon batch, I might put real corks in five bottles and cheap agglomerated in the rest. Or 50/50, depending on the wine and it's aging prospects.