Viticulture question 122CD: I only have 3 references I use right now in addition to this ng. I should also count the viticulture FAQ, which you can find at...
I live near Presque Isle winery, and after speaking with owner Doug Moorehead decided to drop the best 48 bucks (USD) on a portugese floor corker. Doug uses almagamated corks at his winery almost exclusively now, it is a lower grade cork, filled with cork dust and finished with a very fine skin of plastic. He sells these corks that are pre-rinsed with sulfite solution. All you need to do is dip them in a wee bit of warm water as rinse and lube and bang, corked bottles.
Here is a little pictoral essay of the Portugese floor corker in action.
Here you will notice the floor corker in full picture with an Ezra Brooks bourbon bottle loaded, mind you i used this bottle as example because the neck of the Ezra bottle is smaller than a standard wine bottle.
Here is the cork pre-compressed
Here is a compressed cork, now from here you need a swift plunge on the cork or it will be failed. The effort is more to compress the cork than to plunge it into the neck. The reason for this is because of the leverage you get on the handle and the angle. With one sweeping motion you get the entire process done.
Anticipated maturityAs Gene says, it is a difficult question to answer but then again, maybe not so difficult. It...
Here is a pic of the finished product. Not an ezra bottle, but the result is exactly the same. Just for notes, this is a bottle of 2004 blackberry.
Again, I was exclusively screw-top hoss until I got the floor corker, now bottling is a breeze.