I have about 750 mls of Pinot I am storing in a cleaned old wine bottle
for use in topping up. It is corked with the cork that came with the
previous wine. Is this bad? There is maybe a half-inch of air space,
tops. Ideas? Is it a #2 stopper that fits in a std. wine bottle?

Thanks!
Joe

"Joe Giller" > wrote:
> I have about 750 mls of Pinot I am storing in a cleaned old wine bottle
> for use in topping up. It is corked with the cork that came with the
> previous wine. Is this bad? There is maybe a half-inch of air space,
> tops. Ideas? Is it a #2 stopper that fits in a std. wine bottle?

> Re-using a cork is risky. The hole that the corkscrew made when removing
the cork sets up an entrance-way for air. As soon as the cork was removed
from the old bottle, bacteria from the air will begin to grow on the
slightly moist environment of the inside surface.

A #2 rubber stopper is the "correct" size, but it will push all the way in
(and be difficult to remove even with a corkscrew). A #3 stopper will go
about half-way in, and provide a good seal, which is easy to remove when you
need to do so. They cost about 25-50 cents, depending where you buy them ---
much cheaper than losing a bottle of wine to a used cork. Another
alternative for short-term use are "tasting corks" or "T-corks". According
to Vincent, the plastic variety (red tops) work well for long-term also.
Again, the cost is 25-50 cents.

Drilled #2 stoppers work well when using an air lock on a standard wine
bottle. This allows you to have a very small carboy when racking and just
have a little too much wine left over to put into your larger container.
The air lock stem tends to expand the stopper a bit so it may be that a #3
solid would be just the thing when you need a solid stopper.

22 brix


"Joe Giller" > wrote in message
...
> I have about 750 mls of Pinot I am storing in a cleaned old wine bottle
> for use in topping up. It is corked with the cork that came with the
> previous wine. Is this bad? There is maybe a half-inch of air space,
> tops. Ideas? Is it a #2 stopper that fits in a std. wine bottle?
>
> Thanks!
> Joe
>