David Walker
Barrel Sampler
Posts:2284
 | | 04/01/2005 3:27 PM |
| Has anyone ever done this with a wine? What necessitates this process and where/how can it be done?
I've got a few bottles of '77 Taylor and keep reading about leaky corks. The corks on the bottles I have appear to be in questionable condition. | | | |
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David Walker
Barrel Sampler
Posts:2284
| | 04/02/2005 2:47 PM |
| | Wow - only 34 views. Not exactly what I'd call a captivating thread... | | | |
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Budman
Master of Wine
Posts:11814
| | 04/02/2005 2:56 PM |
| Yup... and at least two of them are you!!!    | | | |
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Pete Marsh
Left Coast
Barrel Filler
Posts:1423
| | 04/02/2005 3:53 PM |
| It has been awhle but I have seen an article on this service being avaialble for older wines with suspect corks. I will try to find it tomorrow. If you had access to hand-operated corker, you could remove the old cork, add an inert gas, and then recork.
Pete | |
Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with. | |
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David Niederauer
Los Gatos, CA
Master Sommelier
Posts:15701
| | 04/02/2005 7:30 PM |
| I can tell you with Chateau d'Yquem all you have to do is contact the winery to make arrangements. They will uncork the bottle and fill it to the qppropriate fill-level with the same vintage if they have it (or at least something close). This is usually less than a half-ounce. They then recork the bottle with a new cork marked with the recorking year and put a new foil on the bottle. The foil only goes down the neck half as far as a regular bottle so you can read the cork that says it has been recorked and that it was done at the winery.
I'm sure there is a charge but I do not know how much it is. I'm pretty sure it is nominal. | | | |
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ChangeMe
Master of Wine
Posts:11169
| | 04/02/2005 8:08 PM |
| | Every five years or so, Lafite sends a team to NY to recork their older wines. I thought about getting my 1955s doine a while back, but the corks and levels looked fine and I knew I'd be drinking them soon. I imagine some of the other wineries do this also. You might try contacting the wineries. | | | |
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ChangeMe
Master of Wine
Posts:12891
| | 04/03/2005 1:48 AM |
| | i would do a search over on squires site. iirc they they discussed this in depth recently. | | | |
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David Walker
Barrel Sampler
Posts:2284
| | 04/03/2005 2:57 AM |
| | Thanks everyone. I'll let you know what I come up with. | | | |
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ChangeMe
Grape Destemmer
Posts:96
| | 04/06/2005 1:01 AM |
| Read this thred and gave me an idea. Not the most professional perhaps but could work...
1) Open a new bottle with an Estate opener (the big openers that attach to a stand).
2) Open old bottle with another corkscrew.
3) Gas the old bottle. Reverse the Estate opener (of course you left the new cork in the opener).
4) Done!
I have used the corks return feature of my Estate opener to cork half bottles after I open a larger bottle and pour half the contents into a half for later use so the mechanics work even if nothing else.
Jay. | | | |
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ChangeMe
Barrel Filler
Posts:1210
| | 04/06/2005 4:39 AM |
| I think the bordeaux estates maintain that wines should be re-corked every 20 years or so.. Port is a different story though- I don't believe that porto is every re-corked. Many traditional shippers have special bottles (bubble in the neck) to guide the use of Port Tongs- where the tongs are super-heated and then applied to the neck of the bottle so you can actually break the neck off right below the cork.
http://www.thevintageportsite.com/decanting.htm | | | |
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Bradley Molzen
Bayonne, NJ
Wine Lover
Posts:4955
| | 04/06/2005 9:44 PM |
| | Penfolds recorks as well. | |
If you drink wine, you get smarter.... | |
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ChangeMe
Master of Wine
Posts:12891
| | 04/08/2005 3:53 AM |
| smaug,
wow that was really cool. i often wondered why port bottles looked a bit different. thanks for the link. | | | |
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ChangeMe
Barrel Filler
Posts:1210
| | 04/09/2005 4:30 AM |
| | Thanks. I thought it was pretty cool as well when I heard about this. Roy Hersh has a pair of tongs- and has done this. One of these days I hope to get a chance to see it. | | | |
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ChangeMe
Grape Picker
Posts:9
| | 05/27/2005 9:24 PM |
| Thanks for the post...interesting! | | | |
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garry clark
Grape Truck Driver
Posts:27
| | 05/27/2005 11:14 PM |
| Penfolds runs what they call the wine clinic, where they will look at old bottles of penfolds wines and if you are willing, they will open them, sample to assess quality, longevity etc, then if the wine is still drinkable and has life left in it, they top it up, with current stock then recork and label with a recorking certificate. The wine has now been completely devalued as it is adulterated, so if you plan on reselling it, you wont make nearly as much on it, but from a restauranteurs point of view there is value to the service, because you know that it still has some cellar time left.
grazz | | | |
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TBird
Park Slope, Brooklyn
Wine Connoisseur
Posts:5167
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ChangeMe
Master of Wine
Posts:12891
| | 05/28/2005 1:44 AM |
| | that's for the link tbird, that was very interesting. i especially liked the fact that they were only recorking his 1961's that year. now that is what i call customer service. | | | |
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ChangeMe
Grape Destemmer
Posts:74
| | 05/30/2005 11:13 PM |
| | Penfolds does recorking clinics throughout NA on occasion. Theres one in Toronto in mid-October. Peter Gago opens and recorks your Grange with you and is always willing to do some older vintages of RWT or whatever you may have. | | | |
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