The average Madison Wine customer buys an average bottle of wine that costs $10.25; the wine in that average bottle has been in the bottle for 14 months; the cork in that bottle cost 11 cents and will be removed from the bottle within 24 hours of purchase.
Don't hold me to those numbers, but they are in the ball-park. Also, please forgive me for assuming that the average Madison Wine customer is male - I have driven myself to distraction trying to make this gender neutral and I give up. Instead, by inference, the word "he" shall be construed to mean "he or she"
So, the average Madison Wine customer is used to seeing a cork that is less than 1 inch long. It is reasonably hard and free of markings and it looks clean, dry and new, marred only by the wine stain on the wet end.
He may never have seen the cork from an old or very old bottle.
For his 30th birthday our average customer decides to celebrate with the vintage of his birth. Since 1967 was an abysmal vintage almost everywhere, he settles for a 1966 Calon Segur that we duly dig out of our "cellar in the sky".
We point out that the level of wine is down slightly in the neck - to be expected with a 30 year-old wine - and suggest that he not decant the bottle but allow the sediment to settle by standing the bottle upright for a few hours before opening it. We also suggested that a corkscrew with a long wire screw, like a waiter's corkscrew, be used and that it be inserted as far as will go into the cork, and that the cork be removed slowly and carefully.
Next evening our customer rushes in, all dressed up, a frantic look on his face, a brown bag in hand.
I know what is coming - in a previous life it would have been my "engineer's nightmare", now its my "wine-merchant's nightmare". Our customer had peeled off the lead foil and found the top of the cork covered with mold. The wine was surely bad, but he pressed on and pulled the cork. One look at that cork and there was no doubt that the wine WAS bad. It looked crummy, brown, soaked and wet. The guests were due any minute, and he was panic-stricken and not a little angry.
A taste satisfied us both that the wine was sound and, in fact, exquisite. Our customer had been mislead by his observations. After a quick explanation on the quirks of corks he went on his way, satisfied.
How nice if we could eliminate this kind of nightmare for both us and you, our customer; I know I cannot, but nevertheless, I'm going to try.
Let's talk about the quirks of corks.
The cork in that 1996 bottle was the best cork that money could buy; about 1-1/2 inches long and today its cost is about 75 cents, but it and all other corks are imperfect, not only because they have a finite life, but because, being a natural product, they are subject to all the vagaries of nature.
Corks are simple bottle closures that have served wine well since sometime in the 1600's, when wine bottles were hand blown. Since there were no standards for bottle size and shape, let alone neck diameter, necks and corks were tapered and enough of the cork was left sticking out to provide a "handle" by which to removed it.
There was no standard capacity for those hand blown bottles, nor could there be, and a fascinating side-light of my research for this story was my discovery that consumer protection was alive and well in 17th century Britain, when it was illegal, from the early 1600's until the introduction of standard machine-made bottles in the mid-1800's, to sell wine by the bottle. Customers had their own bottles and brought them to the wine merchant to be filled by measure.
Sometime in the 1700's wine producers and consumers became aware of vintage variation and the aging potential of red wine, leading to the use of cylindrical bottles that could be stored on their sides in bins.
With the advent of standardized machine-made bottles came the cylindrical corks we know today that are compressed and forced into the neck of the bottle. That development created the need for a cork extractor - and hence the corkscrew in its multitudinous variations!
Corks are made from the bark of an oak - Quercus Suber - that thrives in western Mediterranean lands. Being a natural product, cork varies widely in quality, especially in density and soundness. It has a closed cellular structure which gives it it's lightness and compressibility. It also harbors bacteria and other potential contaminants which are usually destroyed by boiling for several hours before the corks are punched from the strips of bark.
There are about ten grades of cork, the cheapest being those made from an agglomerate of cork particles and the highest being the soundest and hardest, having the longest potential life. How long should a cork last? I don't know. Last night I opened a relatively inexpensive '82 Red Burgundy - it's cork looked almost new, and I have had 3- or 4 -year-old corks crumble when I pulled them. That raises a question.
We all know that a wine bottle should be stored on its side to "prevent the cork from drying out" - it's common knowledge. Suddenly I'm wondering about its validity. On reflection, I have never seen a cork deteriorate from the outside in - always from the inside out. Is it the wine that eventually destroys the cork? Does a cork dry out? Some research is indicated.
The supply of good quality cooks is being strained by the explosion in world-wide production of fine wine. The most serious problem is spoiling of wine in the bottle, by a bacteria in an inadequately sterilized cork. So-called "corked" wine has a very distinctive, offensive, musty smell and taste - once you have encountered it you will always recognize it.
ALL CORKS LEAK. The leak may be minuscule - it usually does not leak liquid - it breathes molecules of wine out and air in. Don't believe that? Then why does the level of wine in an old bottle drop, even in some cases to the level of the shoulder?
The longer the cork and the better the quality, the less it breathes, but breathe it does. With every change in temperature, no matter how slight, the pressure in the bottle goes up or down. When it goes up there is a minute migration of wine or vapor molecules out of the bottle. When it goes down there is a minute migration of air molecules into the bottle.
_____________________
"And there is the explanation for the mold between the cork and the capsule!"
_____________________
Finally, back to the mold on that cork. Because the cork is breathing the enclosed space between the lead or plastic capsule and the cork is damp and dark - mold heaven. You will rarely if ever encounter this condition on a relatively young bottle of wine - often with an older bottle. DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT! Before you pull the cork, simply wipe the top of the bottle and the cork clean with a damp piece of paper towel.
And here is my favorite true cork story. I had six bottles of 1961 Ch Figeac, priced at about $200 each. Last December a customer purchased four of them and when we brought them down we found that the cork in one bottle had FALLEN INTO THE WINE. All that was keeping the wine in the bottle was the capsule. The cork probably fell when we picked it up, but the bottle was unsaleable, and so I was obliged to take it home. Cork or no cork it was sensational!
Sometimes a bottle of wine "weeps", but that may not be a cork problem but a fill problem. When temperature rises the wine expands and if bottle has been over-filled there is too little air space in top of the bottle.
Even a small temperature increase will result in a large pressure increase, either pushing the cork out or causing wine to leak. If there are signs of weeping and the bottle is not overfilled the chances are either the cork is not tight or the bottle was, at some time exposed to a high temperature. For our part, we purchase from reputable sources, and we store the wine correctly.
Anyway, I suspect that for the popular priced bottle of wine the days of the cork "cork" are numbered. Screw-caps? Never! But plastic corks are already being used on several Californian brands like St Francis and some of Benziger's bottlings. No doubt there are others, and more to come, but I doubt that First Growth Bordeaux and the like will ever give up the ritual and tradition that goes with a "cork".
If we can eliminate "corked" bottles I am all for it, but I have a nagging question? The aging of wine needs oxygen and that oxygen comes through the cork or through the interface between the cork and the neck of the bottle. With a plastic cork the interface will still be there, but the diffusion through the "cork" itself will probably be negligible. How will it affect aging? I know that wine kept in a tank that is blanketed with an inert gas, like nitrogen, appears not to age at all.
Please call, come in, or email me at riklewis@ibm.net