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Today I want to talk to you about corks

Maybe some friends want to ask

No, it's just a wine bottle lid

What's the big deal?

If you think so

That's a big mistake!

The small bottle stopper plays an extremely important role as the patron saint of wine quality. It is the guardian of wine and can prevent the liquor from being polluted or oxidized. In addition, the cork can give the wine tannin and aroma, and promote the aging of the wine.

At the same time, the cork can also indirectly reflect the quality of wine to a certain extent. For example, the aging degree of this wine can be judged from the degree of immersion: if the cork has been completely soaked, it means that this bottle of wine has been aged for a long time;

For another example, the preservation of wine can be judged from the cork surface: if the cork surface is moldy, it indicates that the preservation humidity of wine is too high.

However, most people don't seem to pay enough attention to corks, so today we'll take a look at the secrets of wine corks!

01

Types of oak plugs

Natural cork, one of the nobles of corks, is the highest quality cork. It is a bottle cork processed from one or several natural corks. It is mainly used for sealing non gassy red wine and wine with long storage life. Wine sealed with natural stopper has no problem in storage for decades, and it is not surprising that it has a record of more than 100 years.

Filling plug, which has a lower status in the cork family, comes from the same origin as the natural plug, but because of its relatively poor quality, the impurities in the holes on its surface will affect the quality of the wine. Evenly apply the mixture of cork powder and adhesive on the cork surface to fill the defects and breathing holes of the cork.

The polymer plug is a cork plug bonded by cork particles and adhesive. According to the different processing technology, it can be divided into plate polymer plug and bar polymer plug. Plate polymerized cork is processed after being pressed into plate by cork particles. Its physical properties are close to natural cork and its glue content is low. It is a better cork, but its production cost is relatively high and it is widely used in developed countries.

The bar polymer plug is processed by pressing cork particles into rods. This kind of bottle plug has high rubber content and its quality is not as good as the plate polymer plug, but its production cost is low and is widely used in developing countries.

Synthetic cork is a composite cork made by a special process. The content of cork particles is greater than 51%. Its performance and application are similar to polymer cork.

The patch cork is made of a polymer plug or synthetic plug. One or two natural cork discs are pasted at one or both ends of the polymer plug or synthetic plug. The part in contact with wine is made of natural material. This kind of bottle plug not only has the characteristics of natural plug, but also is better than the sealing performance of polymer plug or synthetic plug.

Because its grade is higher than that of synthetic stopper and its cost is lower than that of natural stopper, it is a better choice for bottle stopper. Like natural stopper, it can be used for sealing high-quality wine.

Looking at the aging of wine from the cork

To a certain extent, the degree to which the cork is soaked by the wine can also tell the aging time of the wine. The higher the degree of wine impregnation with cork, the longer the age of wine bottling. For example, for some old wines, the cork has been softened by the wine impregnation, and sometimes the impregnation length can reach more than half.

Sometimes, some counterfeiters fake the old wine for several times as the top old wine, but the impregnation degree of the cork is very small, indicating that these old wine may be fake wine.

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Wine preservation from cork

Sometimes the wine has flowed to the top of the cork, which indicates that the wine has leaked and the quality of the wine has been damaged.

This phenomenon is mainly due to the large gap between the cork and the bottle wall, and the excessive oxidation of wine caused by air entering the wine, which will accelerate the oxidative decomposition of tannins and polyphenols, so that the wine presents the characteristics of light aroma, extremely prominent taste acidity, light and tasteless structure and so on.