Why you shouldn’t put your cork back upside down in your wine

Not going to finish the bottle? Avoid doing this.

The time has come to open up a bottle of wine. You grab that corkscrew (wine key, or whatever you want to call it), cut the foil, pop the cork, and pour a glass. And while you may have the opportunity to share a bottle with a partner or family and friends, there are likely many times you find yourself in a situation where you’re simply enjoying some vino on your own. Which means you may not finish that bottle by yourself, and you want to seal the bottle back up so you can enjoy a glass of wine the following night.

So what do you do? Pressing the cork back into the bottle the way it came out seems near impossible because the bottom expanded. But the top of the cork is usually a little smaller, and a lot easier to press into your bottle to seal it. It’s not the best solution, but it will do.

Except for the fact that it could potentially ruin your wine.

You see, cork is a very porous material, and also pretty flexible — as you can see from the way it expands coming out of your bottle. Because of this, cork is affected by its environment; particularly in wine cellars. A wine cellar is kept at a cooler temperature (55°F, or 12°C) and typically humid. The humidity helps to keep the cork expanded and happy. If the wine cellar was dry, the cork could dry out and oxygen could leak through, which evidently oxidizes your wine and ages it and eventually ruins it.

However, because wine cellars are kept at humid temperatures, this also means that corks can be subject to mold. Especially if a bottle has been sitting in a cellar for a long time. While this may seem like a turn off, it’s actually a good thing. Mold on a cork means it was stored properly, so if you see it on our cork, it’s actually fine. (I love this easy breakdown from Vinepair on the topic.)

But…if you’re turning that moldy cork upside down into your wine bottle to store it? Yeah. Not great.

See that mold? Not a bad thing! But imagine having that face down in your wine…

Now, it’s important to note that not all wine is stored properly. (Sigh.) Many of the wines that you find at the store also likely didn’t sit in cellars for a long time; there are quite a few that go directly to the shelves. So having a cork that has visible mold on it might not be a problem. And yet, that cork at the top is still subjected to elements of the air — bacteria and dust and what have you. A capsule (the wrapper around the cork) does help to protect it somewhat, as well as a wax seal. But if any condensation gets trapped in there, mold could still grow.

Does this cause cork taint? Long story short, no. Cork taint happens because of a different kind of mold already present in the cork itself. We haven’t dived too deep into what cork taint is (don’t worry, we will), but essentially cork taint happens when a cork is subject to a specific aromatic compound that was present in the tree that it came from. As the wine sits in the bottle exposed to that cork, it will result in a wine that can either be flavorless (you’ll notice when the wine doesn’t have any lasting flavor after one sip) or a musty, cardboard-like smell to it as it opens up. When this happens, sommeliers will say that the wine is “corked.” (Again, another great breakdown, this time from Wine Enthusiast.)

Bet you’re loving the idea of screw cap now, huh? 😉

Wine of the week

This week’s wine is Lincontro 2020, a skin contact wine from Terre di Confine. It’s a Vermentino, Trebbiano blend from Tuscany, Italy. We enjoyed this with small plates at Ombra.

My tasting notes

• Appearance: Burnt orange color with a medium viscosity

• Nose: Notes of caramel, apples, brandy, and cinnamon. No evidence of oak.

• Palate: Dry with high acidity, medium body, medium alcohol, and moderate tannins. More bitter herbs and medicinal notes on the palate.

Final conclusion

Smells like a fortified wine, with notes of sweet caramel apples and kitchen spices, but has that classic bitter taste from an orange with present tannins.