Man, I hate corks!!

Last night I opened my last bottle of D'Arenburg Ironstone Pressings 1998 and, you guessed it, moldy carboard box.

Arrggghhh.

I hate synthetics even more .

I hate synthetics even more .

+1

I prefer screwcaps to synthetics. I really don't want to see corks disappear though. They make you open wine well before drinking, which is something that you should do anyway. And the 1-3% of spoiled bottles just seems to add to the mystique. I know I'm out-numbered on this, and there are sound arguments on both sides. Do we need to revisit this much ballyhooed topic? I think not, but then again, that is what this board is all about. Have at it!

[David M. Bueker]

The sooner corks are gone the better IMO.

I brought a 2002 Chablis to Baltimore to have in the evenings, and you guessed it...corked. At least it wasn't premoxed!

And the 1-3% of spoiled bottles just seems to add to the mystique.

In the same way that rancid butter adds to the excitement of the cake recipe, or the curdled milk does to your cup of tea?
The quirky charm of your car breaking down every couple of months, or the way every 30th shirt you iron gets spattered by dirty black water from the iron?
The way your wristwatch goes completely haywire once a month and gives you the wrong time?

We certainly extend to the cork a degree of latitude that few other controllable items in our lives benefit from...
cheers,
Graeme

In the same way that rancid butter adds to the excitement of the cake recipe, or the curdled milk does to your cup of tea?
The quirky charm of your car breaking down every couple of months, or the way every 30th shirt you iron gets spattered by dirty black water from the iron?
The way your wristwatch goes completely haywire once a month and gives you the wrong time?

We certainly extend to the cork a degree of latitude that few other controllable items in our lives benefit from...
cheers,
Graeme

First post here and I'm proud to use it in saying bravo to the above sentiment! I've had a rash of corked bottles lately and I'm pretty full up of TCA taint. PLus you just can't beat the sarcasm of the above post, right up my alley, Thanks man

Gach. I agree. I thought I missed the curse for quite a while, but have had a run the last few months. Including two bottles from a smaller Napa producer in the same year.

I was looking forward to trying a Greek red wine this weekend. I am not all that TCA sensitive, but my god the moldy cardboard rolled off the cork...not just the wine itself...in waves.

In the same way that rancid butter adds to the excitement of the cake recipe, or the curdled milk does to your cup of tea?
The quirky charm of your car breaking down every couple of months, or the way every 30th shirt you iron gets spattered by dirty black water from the iron?
The way your wristwatch goes completely haywire once a month and gives you the wrong time?

We certainly extend to the cork a degree of latitude that few other controllable items in our lives benefit from...
cheers,
Graeme

First post here and I'm proud to use it in saying bravo to the above sentiment! I've had a rash of corked bottles lately and I'm pretty full up of TCA taint. PLus you just can't beat the sarcasm of the above post, right up my alley, Thanks man

Welcome, especially your attitude towards corks. No other product costing that much would we accept the ongoing failure rate.

I brought a 2002 Chablis to Baltimore to have in the evenings, and you guessed it...corked. At least it wasn't premoxed!

Baltimore has that effect on wine!

Drew

I hate corks about as much as I hate 1953 Fords. They break down a lot; you can't depend on them. I am sort of in the market for one, though, because, as has been pointed out, I am crazy.

[David M. Bueker]

So tonight I am back in Connecticut with a wine that has never been near Baltimore: 2000 La Prade (Cote de Francs): CORKED!

So tonight I am back in Connecticut with a wine that has never been near Baltimore: 2000 La Prade (Cote de Francs): CORKED!

Since we are kibitzing, I guess I will say for the first time that corked wines piss me off, too, a little. My Ford analogy above expressed my fondness for something so old, and at one time so great, that I can't erase it from psyche. It's a matter of respect, I guess, for my past and roots. You can't go home again, but I am really planning to buy a '53 Ford to drive around the mountains to see if I can bring something back from the dead. If it breaks down, so what; I am using it for nostalgia, some of the reason I don't 100% decry corks.

[David M. Bueker]

After Saturday I was wavering in my support for screw caps. Now once again I am not so sure.

I am sort of in the market for one, though, because, as has been pointed out, I am crazy.

Personally, I'd go for a '49 or '50.

I'm right on board with the cork haters. The DIAMs show promise, but I still think we'd all just be better off with screwcaps.

But shhhh, I shouldn't say anymore - my arch nemesis from the Spanish cork industry might hear me and bombard me with poorly-worded denouncements of my knowledge and character again.

Last night I opened my last bottle of D'Arenburg Ironstone Pressings 1998 and, you guessed it, moldy carboard box.

Arrggghhh.

Now, now, Bruce. You're probably just imagining the wine was tainted. Or you're just over sensitive. Or it was due to something else entirely unrelated to the cork. Or you just don't understand. Or you're over-reacting. Or you aren't getting the mystique of the cork. Or the tradition. Or you don't like the little pop sound the cork makes when you pull it out of the bottle (which, apparently, to some, is a sensation equal to actually enjoying the wine inside the bottle, go figure). Or you just have something against corks. Or you're insufficiently romantic.

Richard Fadeley wrote:
And the 1-3% of spoiled bottles just seems to add to the mystique.

In the same way that rancid butter adds to the excitement of the cake recipe, or the curdled milk does to your cup of tea?
The quirky charm of your car breaking down every couple of months, or the way every 30th shirt you iron gets spattered by dirty black water from the iron?
The way your wristwatch goes completely haywire once a month and gives you the wrong time?

We certainly extend to the cork a degree of latitude that few other controllable items in our lives benefit from...
cheers,
Graeme

Excellent, Graeme. To these superb examples of mystique and je ne sais quois, you can add the absolute charm and whimsicality of Bill Gates' Microsoft.

I am sort of in the market for one, though, because, as has been pointed out, I am crazy.

Personally, I'd go for a '49 or '50.

My second choice, and if one of them pops up first, it will do. I have fond memories of both body styles. I think (but not I'm not positive) it is easier to put a later overhead engine, such as a '57 Merk, into the'52, '53 or '54 body type. Of those three, I like the '53 best. I am also considering a convertible, and the '53 looks sleeker. If I wanted a sedan, the earlier years would look better.

Careful! There is a natural cork mafia out there. I criticized cork in another forum and was attacked by the guy who runs this organization:

http://www.corkreharvest.org/

Apparently screwcaps are one of the signs of the apolcalypse.

Does anybody but me think that corks are so easy to beat up on, and so often attacked, it is a little like picking on fat kids? Like duh.

My second choice, and if one of them pops up first, it will do. I have fond memories of both body styles. I think (but not I'm not positive) it is easier to put a later overhead engine, such as a '57 Merk, into the'52, '53 or '54 body type. Of those three, I like the '53 best. I am also considering a convertible, and the '53 looks sleeker. If I wanted a sedan, the earlier years would look better.

I like where you're going with this, though my preference would be to stick with the flat head. As to convertibles, I have always thought the '56 was the most beautiful. I own a 1948 Hudson Commodore Club Coupe with a '51 Hornet motor, a car I bought in the early 70's and drove every day for a few years before I realized driving it in the winter would ruin it. It features, among other things, a clutch disc with...wait for it...cork inserts. They are bathed in a thin oil called "Hudsonite" and provide a very smooth engagement. And before you get any bright ideas, no I do not want your wine cork collections thank you just the same.

Careful! There is a natural cork mafia out there. I criticized cork in another forum and was attacked by the guy who runs this organization:

http://www.corkreharvest.org/

Apparently screwcaps are one of the signs of the apolcalypse.

I find it interesting, Sam, that in the rationale listing all the reasons for natural cork stoppers versus anything else...that not once is the wine inside the vessel mentioned. Not once are wine quality issues addressed. No problems are mentioned in relation to cork closures. It's all about the cork, and nothing about the wine or the consumer of the wine (as far as I know, none of those consumers eat the cork, but hey...)

This guy is in the business of promoting cork. Period. It's not about the wine at all.

My second choice, and if one of them pops up first, it will do. I have fond memories of both body styles. I think (but not I'm not positive) it is easier to put a later overhead engine, such as a '57 Merk, into the'52, '53 or '54 body type. Of those three, I like the '53 best. I am also considering a convertible, and the '53 looks sleeker. If I wanted a sedan, the earlier years would look better.

I like where you're going with this, though my preference would be to stick with the flat head. As to convertibles, I have always thought the '56 was the most beautiful. I own a 1948 Hudson Commodore Club Coupe with a '51 Hornet motor, a car I bought in the early 70's and drove every day for a few years before I realized driving it in the winter would ruin it. It features, among other things, a clutch disc with...wait for it...cork inserts. They are bathed in a thin oil called "Hudsonite" and provide a very smooth engagement. And before you get any bright ideas, no I do not want your wine cork collections thank you just the same.

I could stick with the flathead. I agree that the ’56 might be the most beautiful year; but, in my mind, it had a touch of the modern that the ’53 didn’t have. It’s possible that is because the ‘60s was peeking in with Elvis blasting out of that car’s radio. In 1953, nothing much had changed yet in America’s psyche.

A friend of mine had a ’56 Ford with a ’56 Mercury engine, which gave it a little more go. I traded up from a ’54 Ford to a ’57, in 1960, in which I installed (myself with the help from a buddy) a 1960, 351 cubic inch police Interceptor engine, with 360 horsepower, I think. A cop had totalled a brand new cruiser and I bought the brand spanking new engine and transmission for $500 from a junkyard. That one hauled, but maybe I don’t want to go that far, now, as long as whatever I have has duels, glass packs, and three speeds on the column.

I have a weekend home in the Adirondack Park, north of Albany, New York. Something has changed, along with the Y Generation’s influence, and the chronic recession, I think, and nobody is coming to the Park anymore. Tourist stores and motels are closing in droves. The park, full or lakes, streams and mountains, is outlined by a blue circle on the New York State map, slightly larger than the State of Connecticut, Vermont, or New Hampshire, individually, and with nothing but winding, two-lane blacktop and dirt roads, with little hamlets sprinkled through, with their country bars and restaurants. It has become the ‘50s again, there, because the people from it never left, and I need an appropriate car and the old American frame of mind for it.

My second choice, and if one of them pops up first, it will do. I have fond memories of both body styles. I think (but not I'm not positive) it is easier to put a later overhead engine, such as a '57 Merk, into the'52, '53 or '54 body type. Of those three, I like the '53 best. I am also considering a convertible, and the '53 looks sleeker. If I wanted a sedan, the earlier years would look better.

I like where you're going with this, though my preference would be to stick with the flat head. As to convertibles, I have always thought the '56 was the most beautiful. I own a 1948 Hudson Commodore Club Coupe with a '51 Hornet motor, a car I bought in the early 70's and drove every day for a few years before I realized driving it in the winter would ruin it. It features, among other things, a clutch disc with...wait for it...cork inserts. They are bathed in a thin oil called "Hudsonite" and provide a very smooth engagement. And before you get any bright ideas, no I do not want your wine cork collections thank you just the same.

I had a '56 station wagon when I was in college. I absolutely loved it. I also had a '49 Willys.