Corks & Wine-On-Taps
Questions we get asked a lot at Wine Sense include “Can I use screw top bottles instead of corks?” and “Why can’t I just serve my wine straight from the carboy?” What is the difference, anyway?
Sure, serving directly out of your carboy or simply screwing on a cap do seem like time savers, but there are a lot of aspects of not bottling properly that may become damaging to your wine in the long run, such as oxidization.
Oxidization occurs when too much oxygen comes into contact with your wine, giving it odd colours and tastes. This can happen many different ways, but re-using screw top wine bottles with loosened threads is one of them, as the oxygen has the ability to sneak between the threads to get at your wine. New screw caps are not really an option for the home winemaker. Commercial wineries have very expensive machines that actually mold the cap to the bottle neck. Nice yes- but not affordable for the home winemaker.
A winemakers best friend!
The other common way for oxidization to occur is serving your wine directly out of the carboy. As the level of the wine goes down, the wine comes into contact with more and more oxygen.
So, whats the solution? Cork! Corks are able to form a barrier between the oxygen and your wine, allowing it to age and mature as it should in the bottles.
If the trouble of bottling is still deterring you from storing your wine in a safe way, there are a few tools that can make your job easier. Our “Wine on Tap” system allows you to have wine at your fingertips by bagging 7 litres of your wine into one bag. This keeps your wine safe, easy to access, and saves you from bottling!
![wineontap[1]](http://www.mywinesense.com/wp-content/uploads/wineontap1.jpg?x27696 "wineontap[1]")
The Wine-On-Tap works great on the counter or in the fridge!
Bottle fillers, bottle trees and avvinators are also great tools to help you in the bottling process. Stop in or call your Wine Sense to get more information on these pieces of equipment!
Obviously storage of your wine is vital — so put a cork in it!
Cheers,
Megan, Manager (Wine Sense- Portage Ave.)
Filed under: General by Craig
