Murray Clark wrote:
> They are cheap. You would ruin your wine by re-using corks. Even with the plastic stoppers you run a high risk of bacterial infection in the wine. You would also have a lot of leakage.


Bacterial infection would not be my biggest worry though. I cannot
think of a really compelling reason to think that used corks have a
higher risk of bacterial contamination than new corks. i mean they are
exposed to the same air and dirt. And I assume that you would soak old
and new corks in sulfite and make sure wine sulfite levels are
adequate.

I guess the used corks could have wine in the cork that would invite
bacteria to take a hold while being stored though. Also with the
inferior sel that they create that may aloow the wine to be exposed to
oxygen levels high enough for acetobacter growth.

Anyway you cut it I would not risk it unless civilization ended and I
really needed to cork some wines.