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After having drunk goodness knows how many bottles of Champagne over the last 30 years, I opened a bottle today and encountered my first ever corked bottle of Champagne! What a shock!

I hope it wasn't a particularly good one!

Sorry to hear but I am very surprised by your low strike rate! I haven't been as fortunate

DRT wrote:

I hope it wasn't a particularly good one!

It was a modest bottle, not something too serious, but very irritating. Happily a substitute was found rapidly.

griff wrote:Sorry to hear but I am very surprised by your low strike rate! I haven't been as fortunate

I'd built up an expectation that Champagne was unlikely to be corked, I wasn't sure why - I assumed that the corks used were top quality so less likely to be contaminated.

AHB wrote:

griff wrote:Sorry to hear but I am very surprised by your low strike rate! I haven't been as fortunate

I'd built up an expectation that Champagne was unlikely to be corked, I wasn't sure why - I assumed that the corks used were top quality so less likely to be contaminated.

That's what I think about port corks!

Was it an aged bottle? Champagne should be aged upright. Can't recall the last corked Champagne I have had. Madeira, I have had one bottle corked.

mosesbotbol wrote:Was it an aged bottle? Champagne should be aged upright. Can't recall the last corked Champagne I have had. Madeira, I have had one bottle corked.

It was an aged bottle, from the 2000 vintage.

Purely from a storage convenience point of view, I store my Champagne bottles on their side - it's just easier with the racking I have. While I agree that you can store Champagne bottles upright, I guess the only advantage to that is you might avaid TCA contamination if the cork is infected.

Bummer. Not often you hear of someone having a corked Champagne.