This Is Why the Cork on Your Wine Keeps Breaking

I have a confession to make: I’m in my broken cork era. As someone who loves (and writes about) wine for a living, I’d like to say I’m well-versed in aging my bottles. In fact, my entire collection is stored on its side in a cool, relatively dark space. (Well, at least, the best I can do living in Northern California.) 

But lately, I’ve been noticing a lot of bottles I’ve been opening have broken corks that are totally headache-inducing—and ultimately make their way into my glass. That 1990s vintage my husband and I procured in October? A bottle of merlot we bought in New Mexico on Thanksgiving? The glass of pinot I ordered last night? All wound up with corky bits inside.

Causes of a Broken Cork

So what gives? I might be going through a streak of bad luck, but there’s a chance you’ve had a similar dilemma. According to Jerry McGie, wine director at Dalida in San Francisco, these toppers can be rather finicky.

“Corks are just like you and me,” he says. “They really just want to curl up in a cool, comfortable, dark place and be left alone. Also, like me, they prefer being left on their side, away from too much activity, light and dry air.”

McGie says one of the most common causes is improper storage: Keeping your wine somewhere too bright, warm, or dry tends to wreak havoc on your cork.

Age is another factor to consider. “Corks are natural and biodegradable, so the longer they spend in the neck of a bottle, the more their little ‘lifespan’ erodes,” McGie explains. “Even a bottle that was stored in perfect conditions will weather over time, cork included.”

Sometimes, however, you might be working with a low-quality cork. “When producers chase cost savings, they may opt for lower-quality corks,” says Sam Bogue, beverage director for the Flour + Water Hospitality Group in San Francisco. “In some cases they get lucky and only experience isolated issues, but in others it can result in compromised corks across an entire vintage.” 

While a faulty cork doesn’t necessarily mean your wine isn’t good, Bogue says you could draw a correlation between higher-quality wines and producers who are willing to spend a bit more to protect their wine with a more serious enclosure.

How to Handle a Broken Cork

Proper storage is typically the easiest and most efficient way to prevent damaged corks, but what if you’ve tried everything to no avail? Bogue recommends using a bottle opener called an Ah-So, which uses two flat prongs that slide down the sides of the cork and allow you to pull damaged or fragile corks out of the bottle. While there are plenty of options on the market, Bogue says the Durand is certainly worth the investment for avid wine collectors. “It combines the flat prongs of an Ah-So with a traditional corkscrew, making cork extraction on older or compromised bottles almost foolproof,” he explains.

If you’re working with a typical corkscrew, McGie encourages you to assess the damage. “If it’s just a small amount, perhaps the best thing to do is to push the rest of the cork into the bottle and then decant with a cheesecloth,” he says. If you don’t have a cheesecloth, a coffee filter will do.  

Above all, don’t panic. I mean, you shouldn’t cry over spilled wine, so why let a damaged cork spoil the fun? “It happens to the best of us,” McGie shares. “I, personally, have opened many bottles and still get cocky and break a cork from time to time.”