Recently I was eating at a restaurant and someone ordered a bottle of wine. The cork looked, for lack of better term, “generic”. He thought nothing of it, but I thought it odd. Every cork I’ve seen has some design or winery logo on it (usually fairly complex), along with the name of the winery. This one had just a simple grape vine design with no name or logo.
I thought I read somewhere that this type of thing was a sign of some kind of unlawful dealings on the part of the restaurant. But this seemed to be a reputable restaurant. Am I remembering badly, or is my suspicion justified?
As long as the wine was opened in front of you (with the foil, or whatever trandy wax thingy they use these days, intact) there shouldn’t be anything to worry about. I’ve seen plenty of corks just like this.
I thought that was the reason you were supposed to inspect the cork - to see if it matched the label. If it doesn’t, it could mean that the restaurant has poured a cheap wine into an emptied bottle of some more expensive wine, and corked it themselves.
You’re looking for a two main thing when you inspect a cork. Firstly you can sniff it (that’s where the “corked” smell is most noticeable) and you can check the basic condition of the cork - it should be dry at the top. If it’s wet through or has a damp patch stretching up one side, the wine has come into contact with air and is not in 100% condition.
Actually, it’s pretty easy to recork a bottle with the original cork if you wanted to - just as easy as it is to open a bottle without a corkscrew. The hard bit is getting the foil back on.
if it’s a really old, special bottle, sometimes they are re-corked after, say 20-30 years by the winery upon request. corks don’t last 100 years, whereas some wines do.
Well now that’s what I thought. But I got there right after the bottle was opened, so I didn’t have the chance to see if the foil was removed, etc. Incidentally, I bought a bottle of this particular wine yesterday, so when I drink I’ll be able to see what the cork looks like and figure out if they really did replace it or not. Don’t hold your breath, though, it might be a while!!
I was just told by a cousin who runs a (rather good) winery – to my utter amazement – that recorking bottles before they are sold is a normal practice. I didn’t quite catch how widespread it is, but I could ask him.
Not all corks are marked, either.
Switching wines and selling them would constitute misrepresentation. Something a restaurant could get in big trouble for, I imagine. If it’s a good restaurant, they probably wouldn’t take the chance.
Ummm… speaking as an ex-wine waiter, frankly sometimes we just sorta’ blow the uncorking – we’re human and all.
Sometimes the cork is crumbly (especially with those Chilean wines) or the seal is creeped and stained down one side and looks bad, or maybe we just were slacking and didn’t drive the corkscrew in deep enough or draw back evenly. Sure the cork looks right mess, but as long as there’s no floaters or sediment and there’s no smell of vinegar or oxidization we’ll keep the clientele happy by presenting an unrelated whole cork. Nobody’s the wiser.
