How is champagne corked

Vinny, I was looking at a bottle of Champagne that we had just finished and saw that the cork was about three times as wide as the opening. Dear Cameron, Corks are known for their elasticity, and can compress to about half their width without losing any flexibility, which is one of the reasons they're considered good closures for wine.

Ask Dr. More In Dr. Vinny Ask Dr. Explore Newsletters. Restaurant Search. When the pressure is released, the cork expands to form a tight seal. When a bottle of champagne is opened the part that was inside the neck expands to give the cork a mushroom shape. Cork is harvested from the bark of the Quercus Suber Cork Oak tree with the bulk of forests located in Spain and Portugal and it takes a pretty long time for the tree to produce champagne quality corks.

It has to reach at least years before the first harvest can take place, and the first one or two harvests are generally of inferior quality not suitable for champagne corks. Subsequent harvests take place at intervals of anything from years and only then does it produce bark of a quality suitable for champagne corks.

Harvesting only takes place between May and August and the tree is not cut down, only the bark is stripped from it and this does not cause permanent damage to the tree. These trees live for about years. Originally champagne corks were made from a single piece of natural cork, and this is quite costly because of the thickness of the cork bark required to produce a solid, natural cork.

Some producers have moved to agglomerate corks sometimes referred to as technical corks onto which discs of natural cork are glued. This is considerably cheaper than natural cork, however, TCA occurrence is often higher than regular corks. It also shows the composition of an agglomerate cork, and one can clearly see the disc of natural cork glued to the bottom. Since a 3rd option has become available to champagne producers, a Matik Diam cork, or technological cork.

The magic of Matik Diam lies in the production method which extracts the volatile compounds of cork that can harm champagne. The pic above shows a technical cork or agglomerate cork on the left and a Matik Diam cork on the right.

Of more than 50 bottles sampled, only one was discarded because of cork taint. The wine was beautifully effervescent, and the fault only became apparent when smelling and tasting it. Don't miss a drop! Get the latest in beer, wine, and cocktail culture sent straight to your inbox.