Whilst encouraging the use of port tongs: Geoffrey M. Tait (Port from the vine to the glass - 1936) wrote:During the many years in which the bottle is lying in its bin, a small amount of wine soaks into the cork...the action of drawing the cork compresses it as it passes through the narrowest part of the neck. This cannot fail to squeeze out a little thoroughly undesireable liquid, wich may easily just prevent that bottle being "absolutely perfect".
I had never thought of this before reading that passage. Has anyone ever tried squeezing an old wet cork and tasting the liquid that comes out of it?
I think a JDAW experiment is called for.
"The first duty of Port is to be red" Ernest H. Cockburn
Whilst encouraging the use of port tongs: Geoffrey M. Tait (Port from the vine to the glass - 1936) wrote:During the many years in which the bottle is lying in its bin, a small amount of wine soaks into the cork...the action of drawing the cork compresses it as it passes through the narrowest part of the neck. This cannot fail to squeeze out a little thoroughly undesireable liquid, wich may easily just prevent that bottle being "absolutely perfect".
I had never thought of this before reading that passage. Has anyone ever tried squeezing an old wet cork and tasting the liquid that comes out of it?
I think a JDAW experiment is called for.
ugh, I can just imagine the little cork pieces trying to be spit out in this experiment.
Disclosure: Distributor of Quevedo wines and Quinta do Gomariz
Whilst encouraging the use of port tongs: Geoffrey M. Tait (Port from the vine to the glass - 1936) wrote:During the many years in which the bottle is lying in its bin, a small amount of wine soaks into the cork...the action of drawing the cork compresses it as it passes through the narrowest part of the neck. This cannot fail to squeeze out a little thoroughly undesireable liquid, wich may easily just prevent that bottle being "absolutely perfect".
I had never thought of this before reading that passage. Has anyone ever tried squeezing an old wet cork and tasting the liquid that comes out of it?
I think a JDAW experiment is called for.
Perhaps the next time someone uses tongs on a bottle, it would be worth seeing how much liquid is squeezed out as the cork is removed from the (now decapitated) neck? I wonder if it’s any at all.
Equally, there might have been more squeezing in the past, looking at the larger diameters of the threads of some of the Antique British Corckscrews.
BTW, has anyone seen a double helix corkscrew before? Would that generate more torque to remove a really stuck port cork?
