Aging Corks Fail ??

Doug Bashford · 2007-11-13T22:19:47+00:00

I seem to have a cork failure disease.I made 30 gals of extreme elderberry wine ten years ago.I still have more than a case left. It was designed for maxed-out alchohol, I got that and extreme bouquet, and very sweet, with high natural tannins.Excellent for a sweet! Storage has been at room temps, mostly horizontal, butsome vertical time, and some temps occasionally over 85Fdue to lifestyle irregularities. I opened a bottle last night.I chose that bottle cuz the cork was half stained, figurednow or never. The stained part was damp and crumbly,and almost spongy, it was not a surface stain. The wine seemed like it had deriorated. It had lost that extreme bouquet and fruitiness, thus some complexityas the tannins and earthyness took the front seat.It had become a good junkyard wine. ...OK in that context,it seems twice as potent as whiskey on the rocks, my normal drink. The color was garnet, but I seem to remember ruby. If so, that suggests oxidation. Many of the corks are showing those symptoms. Half? They seemed fine a year ago, the wine too.I have no idea why, I've never heard of this before.The sugar? The hi-alchohol? Contamination?Is this a common bug? How to prevent? Thanks!--Doug

Nov 13, 2007 20 Replies

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Tom 18 years ago

Tough to put a cork screw through though - LOL. It looks good, but it is still using rubber to separate wine from air.

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Aging Corks Fail ??

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