BYOBguide.com : Ask a Wine Question

Choose a topic to see the answered questions within it or ask a wine question of your own.

Back to Topic Index

How to recork a bottle of wine.

Q	When to drink 1995 Dom Perigon? Now, any aging of the wine will only slightly improve it's taste. Back to Topic Index
Q	How do you get an expanded cork to fit back onto the original bottle? With sheer brut force, and please note it sometimes will not go back in. Back to Topic Index
Q	Is it proper or not to place the label end of a cork, the top part, back into the bottle when recorking the wine, or should you shove the cork in the same way it came out? To throughly answer your question, I would prefer to know the circumstances around recorking your wine, i.e., is it an attempt to keep the wine fresh in between pours at a restaurant (not necessary), is it to preserve the wine for the next day or is it to take the wine home from a restaurant? Since the actual event surrounding your question is not clarified, I will try to answer all three scenarios. First, once a bottle of wine is opened either at your home or at a restaurant, the same cork should not be placed back in the bottle until after you have finished consuming the amount of wine you wish to obtain from the bottle. If the bottle has to be recorked with the same cork you should always use the end of the cork that was originally in the bottle. Admittedly this is more difficult to do since the cork has most likely adsorbed wine and expanded, but that is the proper etiquette to follow. It sounds to me like you are getting servers that are either inexperienced or lazy. Now some issues with recorking. First, if you are recorking to preserve the wine for another day, utilizing a rubber cork with a vacuum pump is preferred since this system will extract air from the bottle and help to better preserve the wine. When you reuse the same cork from the bottle to recork, you are not allowing the removal of air from the bottle, which can help degrade the wine. You might consider bringing a rubber cork and vacuum pump with you when you dine away at home. The pump and two corks run around $10.00 and are available at most wine shops and kitchen stores. Now if the wine needs to be recorked at a restaurant to take home, please bear in mind that most states have an open container law that prohibits an open container of alcohol in a vehicle. Our advice has always been to give the remaining wine to the wait staff at the restaurant. It is usually always appreciated and the act of kindness may benefit you on future visits to the restaurant. If you must take the wine with you, put in the trunk of the vehicle away from the passenger area. Back to Topic Index

BYOBguide Home | Privacy Policy | Disclaimer

Restaurant Take Out Tips and Tricks
Have you ever ordered take out from a BYOB restaurant you like only to have the restaurant screw up your order? Based on an informal polling of BYOBguide.com users, apparently the answer is ...
read more