How Do Corks Get Put Into Wine Bottles? - Wine Spectator

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Aug 8, 2008

Hello there! I'm Dr. Vinifera, but you can call me Vinny. Ask me your toughest wine questions, from the fine points of etiquette to the science of winemaking. And don't worry, I'm no wine snob—you can also ask me those "dumb questions" you're too embarrased to ask your wine geek friends! I hope you find my answers educational, empowering and even amusing. And don't forget to check out my most asked questions and my full archives for all my Q&A classics.

Dear Dr. Vinny,

I was looking at a bottle of Champagne that we had just finished and saw that the cork was about three times as wide as the opening. I have also seen that the corks in regular wine bottles are larger than the holes they fill. How do corks get into the bottles?

—Cameron E., Orange, Calif.

Dear Cameron,

Corks are known for their elasticity, and can compress to about half their width without losing any flexibility, which is one of the reasons they're considered good closures for wine.

Corks are cut larger than the opening they are going into, and then compressed before being inserted into the neck of the bottle. Sparkling wines have slightly different corks (there are often a couple of cork discs glued to the bottom of the main cork body), which helps maintain the cork's integrity against all the pressure inside a bottle of bubbly. Even though they come out in a "mushroom" shape, sparkling wine corks start out in a cylindrical shape before they're put into the bottle. The cork only goes in about 2/3 of the way, and then the part sticking out is secured in place by a wire cage. When the bubbly cork comes out, the disks at the bottom tend to expand faster than the rest of the body, hence the mushroom shape.

—Dr. Vinny

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