First time corking wine and I'm really not happy with the way it's looking. Followed some tutorials online. It said to soak them and to use a lot of pressure. They are getting completely mashed in by the corker. Is this a technique issue or an equipment issue?
I suppose you could hammer that pressing part to desired width? Or maybe easier would be to add in a width spacer? I dunno maybe I'm gonna bother one day
I have that same corker as well and can confirm all my corks look EXACTLY like this. Really want to get a new corker but hard to justify how large a floor corker is vs this one which I can throw in a box
It makes them soft, they absorb the water and cad leech it back onto your wine and they take a long time to seal.
A quick rinse is all you need.
Also, adjust your corker so the plunger doesn't press so far into the bottle, just flush or slightly above the bottle is perfect. Those corkers work great when set up right.
At least on mine the corks bounce back in a few days. The plunger of the corker is just too narrow and puts all the force right in the center of the cork.
Same thing happened to me using that device, spend a bit more to get a table top corker or tack weld / super glue a little metal cap to make the plunger end wider.
I have the same problem with my corker. For natural corks, it just punches holes in the middle. If I want it to be flat, I try to leave my corks sticking out a quarter inch and just slice the top off with a ceramic knife. Otherwise hide it under a shrink wrap or just don't care about it.
I know wetting the cork in any way is controversial and I might get criticized. I bring water to a boil and shut off the heat. As soon as it stops bubbling I submmerge my corks for no more that 15 minutes. I take out a cork, give it a spritz of starsan, and use a floor corker, no problem. Before anyone drags out their soapbox, this is how I learned over 30 years ago how to do this, even though the starsan is a recent addition. I let the bottles stand for about a week in a cool dry place before setting them on their sides. I have some bottles that are 20 years old and have all still been good with no cork taint so far. I am assuming you are using a 2 lever style corker, it uses a cone to compress the cork. One fluid motion to set the cork seems to do best. What size cork are you using? For a hammer style corker I stuck with a 7, a 2 or 3 lever I would use an 8, maybe a short 9, and longer 9s I always use a floor. The hammer and 2 lever models all use a cone, the 3 lever and floor models commonly used an iris to compress the cork. I started out with a 3 lever Gilda, but I started collecting a few different styles and have tried them all. I now primarily use a Portuguese style floor corker, but I know money and space can all be issues. I still like my old Gilda though.
Thanks for the info. The corker is in the 2nd picture, and the only varieties of corks I could see was "standard" or "tapered". I went with the former.
The second picture didn't load so I didn't see it. You definitely want a straight cork though and I would look for number 8 corks. A little smaller diameter and they should go into the bottle easier.
I have a slice of cork to put between the “pusher rod” and the actual cork so that it doesn’t do this. You’ll need to adjust the depth setting but It ends up looking much better
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u/Ketchupcharger Sep 10 '26
I have the same corker, the pressing part is juuuust not wide enough and thats why that happens.
I mean I'm not bothered cause it doesn't really matter, it still works, but yeah it does not look great