Why Aged Wine Need to Be Re-corked?

For those who want to save left-over wine, they may re-cork the wine with smaller corks. However, what’s the reason that people re-cork a bottle of aged wine?

Re-cork is to replace the original cork with a new cork. In the aging process of bottled wine, the bottle cork would gradually be damaged and lose its elasticity with the passage of time. As a result, the cork can no longer fit tightly with the bottle mouth, oxygen will easily enter the bottle, and the wine in the bottle will volatile loss or even overflow the bottle. In this way, it doesn’t take long for a bottle of precious wine to become a bottle of vinegar under the influence of oxygen. Therefore, for bottled wine that has been aged for a long time in the cellar and still needs to be aged, changing the cork is a common way to protect the quality of the wine in the bottle.

What kind of wine needs to be re-corked?

Re-corking is a process used to preserve bottled wine for a long time in most wine regions around the world. In Bordeaux, a bottle of wine needs to undergo a cork change after being preserved for about 30 years. In fact, most corks can last for more than 15 years, so in general, 15 years is the shortest period for a bottle of wine to change its cork. Therefore, for those aged wines that have been stored in the cellar for 15 years or more, regular re-corking is an effective way to keep the wine for a long time.

What is the effect of re-corking on wine?

If the quality of the aged wine in the bottle is still in good condition, the professional who changes the cork will make up the wine (the aged wine will inevitably volatilize during the storage process, resulting in the drop of the liquid level in the bottle). It should be pointed out that the characteristics of the wine and the amount of liquor replenishment will have different effects on the development of the original wine in the bottle. If only 15-25ml of the liquor is added to a re-corked wine, the new wine will have little effect on the original wine compared to the total volume of 750ml. However, if more new liquor is filled into the original bottle, and the liquor age is relatively new, the liquor supplemented will have a greater impact on the development of the original wine in the bottle. The operation of changing the cork may also cause a certain degree of depreciation of an aged wine in the circulation market.

What’s more, the re-corked aged wine is filled with a small amount of nitrogen and sulfur dioxide during the process of re-corking, so it needs to be kept for at least 3-5 years to disperse these gases. It is not recommended to open the bottle for enjoyment during this period, as the aroma and flavor of the wine are still relatively closed.

Which famous wineries provide re-corking services?

It is important to note that no matter how many tutorials about re-corking you’ve seen, you should never complete the operation of replacing cork for wine by yourself. Since aged wine is more fragile than you might think, there is a high 90% chance of destroying a bottle of good wine that can still be aged for many years if you change the cork by yourself. Therefore, it is advisable to go to the original winery of the wine or professional cork changing organizations.

In Bordeaux, there have been many famous wineries providing re-corking services for customers who buy their wine, such as Chateau Lafite Rothschild. The staff of Chateau Lafite Rothschild took the re-corking machine to different cities to change the cork for customers. This temporary place provided for customers to change the cork is called the “re-corking clinic” of the winery. Moreover, Chateau Lafite Rothschild does not restrict customers to change the cork of Lafite’s wine, so the top wines from other famous wineries often appear in Lafite’s re-corking clinic.

However, due to the high risk of aged wine bottle opening and the emergence of some fake wine, Lafite Rothschild and some other famous wineries continued to stop this re-corking service.

Penfolds in Australia is one of the few well-known wineries that still offer re-corking services to customers. In order to reduce the risk, Penfolds only provides this service for the wines produced by Penfolds, especially for its flagship wine, Grange.

The wine that has been re-corking generally needs to stand upright for 1-2 days, and will not be returned to the customer until the cork has fully expanded and fits the mouth of the bottle. In addition, a label or certificate will be given to the wine that has been re-corked to show information such as the date of change, which may also be pasted on the back label or printed under the foil cap.

Last but not least, it should be noted that the cork change does not apply to every bottle of aged wine with the age of 15 years or more. If you are not sure whether you need to change the cork of your aged wine collection, you can contact the original winery and tell them the specific state of the aged wine. After that, the winery’s professionals will evaluate the state of the wine and give corresponding suggestions.

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References

Gavin. (2016). Recorking an aged bottle of wine - Rebouchée. Retrieved from https://www.wineguy.co.nz/index.php/glossary-articles-hidden/849-recorking.

TodayShow. (2016). What’s the best way to save leftover wine? You'll never guess! Retrieved from https://www.today.com/food/what-s-best-way-save-leftover-wine-you-ll-never-t75541.