Synthetic corks

Everything I've read it is:

1. Screw caps
2. Synthetic corks
3. natural cork from trees

in that order of better. #1 is best. Natural cork can let in a little oxygen, but mostly it's the cork rot potential.

DAve

Crhoff wrote:

Jury is still out... some reports say the synthetic corks better seal for first couple of years. Some synthetics better than others.

Plastics do shrink over time, and their springiness is not retained as well as natural cork.

YMMV again.

Gene

zork.com.au Have a look at this site, out of interest. The site contains some interesting comparitive oxygen permiability test results between cork, zork and stelvin closures. I believe the product is becoming available in USA.

No, I do not work for them. I purchased a small quantity (160) to try on my last wine as I too am becoming disenchanted with cork. I pushed them on by hand, having made sure my bottles met the required spec.

The conventional synthetic corks available is Australia are damaged by the 4 compression blocks in the corker (Italian origin) and so they leak, stelvin is for the big boys and so the choices are not great.

Regards Ian

Very interesting. Where they expensive? Does anyone know of an internet wine site that sells them?

Really people, for the amount of time that most of us keep homemade wines any closure will work just fine. I doubt you will see much of a difference between them.

I think the biggest issue for us would be ease of use, followed by availability and then cost.

Now for the rare batch of wine that home wine makers make that is supposed to age for 5 or more years, then looking into high quality natural cork or screw tops may be warrented.

I have been using synthetic for 3 years now and have not had a problem with them. I had heard that they were hard to insert but my floor corker has no trouble with them. I had heard that they are hard to extract. My angle wing extractors have had no trouble with them. I had not heard that they were hard to reinsert if you want to put the cork back in and put the bottle in the fridge. They are. Some one said that they may shrink or loose their elasticity with time. They certainly seem to spring back to original size after a few years.

Ray

RE the Zorks, I purchased the minimum quantity of that 160 Zork will sell and they cost AUD 0.44 - quite expensive. I collected them from the manufacturer. The wine I used them on was made from premium grapes from the Southern Vales in South Australia ( on the coast south of Adelaide) and I expect it to be quite long lived. If I purchased a quantity of 1000 zorks I think the price drops to something more reasonable like AUD 0.25 each, still more expensive than cork.

Send an email to Zork and ask them what arrangements they have set up for USA distributors.

Regards Ian

While we're on the topic of synthetic corks has anyone ever tried reusing them ( I only reuse the ones that the corkscrew doesn't go right the way thru)?

Frances

My experience is similar to Ray's. I prefer NomaCorc to anything else at this point. Most of my wine is gone in 5 years as others mentioned previously but I have 9 year old Mead's under real cork right now. If the Nomacorc holds up for 5 years I will be satisfied. So far I know I have some under Nomacorc for at least 2 years; I have to look later to see if any are older. Keep in mind when they talk about screw caps the usually mean a Stelvin which is rolled on by a machine...

Joe

You could try reusing them and tell us about it. Use an ah so and let us know. I have always wanted to rhyme ah so.