Corking may seem like a very small concern when you’re deep into the act of winemaking. After dealing with all of the intricacies of fermentation, popping a cork into a bottle can feel like a very simple act—practically an afterthought. Yet anyone who has ever had a negative experience with corking can tell you that it’s a very important step. Without the right equipment, you could end up with an improperly corked bottle full of spoiled, wasted wine. That’s why it’s important to figure out exactly which kind of corker will work best for you, and to have the appropriate corks to use with it.
The most rudimentary wine bottle corker is a hand corker. This is a cheap alternative that will probably work for you if you only have a few bottles to cork and don’t mind putting in a little extra physical effort. However, if you’re looking for a corker that will last you through lots of bottles and make corking easier, a floor corker is the way to go. The Portuguese Wine Bottle Floor Corker is a particularly great model. It’s both charming to look at and highly effective. The rolled steel construction of this corker means it’s made to last, and its bold red color is reminiscent of something you’d see in an old world winery. The Portuguese Floor Corker is easy and straightforward to operate. Place the bottle on the stand and push down on the lever handle to compress and insert the cork into the bottle’s opening. There are plastic dies in the corker just for the purpose of compressing the cork, which make it small enough to go into the bottle, at which point the corker releases it. Then the cork expands back to its normal size, making for a perfect, tight seal. Because the Portuguese Wine Bottle Floor Corker is designed to stand on the floor, it gives you a whole added level of stability in comparison to a hand corker. That also means you can use both hands to operate the handle, giving you more leverage and saving you some strength each time you use it.
The Portuguese Wine Bottle Floor Corker is designed to work with corks up to size #9. That being the case, the First Quality # 8 (1 3/4) Wine Corks from Learn to Brew are the perfect complement for this particular corker. They’re natural (as opposed to synthetic) and made of agglomerated cork, or uniformly-sized unused portions and shavings of cork combined with food grade adhesive. The mixture makes for a dense, reliably high-quality cork that is less likely to fall apart and lead to cork taint in your wine. With thirty corks in a bag, you’re getting a great deal on the price, too. They’re also attractive, thanks to the decorative grape leaf design each cork is imprinted with. By using a quality cork like this in conjunction with your Portuguese Wine Bottle Floor Corker, you’ll be able to rest assured that each wine bottle you cork will have just the right seal on it. That helps ensure that your wine will live out a nice, lengthy shelf life.
