Question about corks and aging

[Stickymatch]

Hello. I'm new to winemaking and while I have most of the equipment, I'm waiting for my wine kit to arrive any day. I purchased the Eclipse Merlot and have a couple of questions.

First, is it unheard of to age a kit wine such as Eclipse for 5 years or so? I've done a lot of reading around the innerweb and find conflicting info such as kit wines peak around 2-3 years and degrade after that while other info suggests that it isn't an issue. Thoughts?

Also, are non-chamfered with agglomerated cork center and natural cork disk end corks ok for aging a wine that long or am I better off using full natural corks?

I've done searching around the site, but couldn't find the exact answer, so I apologize if it's been asked before and I couldn't find the info.

Thanks.

 

[garymc]

You'll probably get some opinions. Mine is that less than a year or so in contact with the cork, the disc things are ok. More than a year or so, and I'd recommend the real thing. I don't do kits, but if I'm making some fruit wine or something I don't plan on having under the cork for a long time, I'll use the disc things or even a nomacorc. But I squish grapes and fruit, keep it in the carboy for 6-9 months, and then bottle. So mine are 6-9 months old before the wine tastes a cork. I think the real corks assist in the aging of the wine.