Where to find wine corks

Choosing the correct cork comes down to two factors: how long the wine will be in the bottle before it gets consumed, and economics. If you will be bottling a simple, fruity wine that will be drunk within a year, then you probably don't need a wine cork that is rated for 15 years a grade 1, natural cork will absolutely do the job, but at 1.

On the other hand, if you have made a wine that you will be appreciating for the next years then it doesn't make sense to close that bottle with a wine cork that is only rated for 1 year, either! When choosing your cork, therefore, the goal is to strike a balance between the projected lifespan of the wine and how much you need to spend to ensure the wine is protected for this duration.

Years rated for:. If you are using a hand corker this is an important detail to keep in mind because hand corkers do not generate enough compression to be able to completely insert a synthetic wine cork into a bottle: If you are using a hand corker we recommend only using natural corks.

Floor corkers, on the other hand, easily generate the necessary compression to work with synthetic corks with no problem. View Cart Checkout. Toggle navigation. Start Here. May 31, Dear Dr. Vinny, I know that wine corks are recyclable, but how do I recycle them? Ask Dr. Vinny Closures Environment Recycling.

More In Dr. Vinny Ask Dr. As a result, many vintners began abandoning cork in favor of alternative closures, like aluminum screw caps and plastic plugs, which also had the added benefit of lower cost. Importing cork from the Mediterranean can be expensive, especially for wineries in New Zealand and Australia; by , most wineries in those countries had switched to screw-cap closures, which were also gaining prominence across the world.

Though it has recaptured some market share in recent years, the cork industry is now fighting against the newly discovered appeal of plastic and aluminum. Screw caps are just easier to use. Plastic stoppers have also surged in popularity, now accounting for 10 percent of the wine-closure market. A report by the Wine Market Council, a nonprofit association of grape growers, wine producers, importers, and other affiliated businesses, revealed that 65 percent of older Millennials over the age of 25 drink wine daily or several times a week; half of younger Millennials fell into the same category.

Before cork taint frightened so many winemakers into abandoning cork, the material had helped to successfully preserve fine wines for centuries. This feature allows a cork to be pressed into a smaller physical space and yet spring back to its original form when removed. Step after step, cork absorbs the pressure and then instantly springs back to its original form, no worse for the wear. Following the cork-taint scare, the cork industry set out to improve both its product and its image.

Cork producers invested in new equipment and worked to refine production techniques, contributing to a sharp decline in tainted wine.