In case you haven't noticed, not all corks are alike. We sell a wide range of corks that vary in size and protection for your wine. #8 and #9 are used for the standard wine bottles. Generally, we recommend the #8 corks for the 375 ml bottles (splits) and #9 corks for the 750 ml and 1,500 ml bottles.

When choosing a cork, the most important question is how long do you plan to age the bottle? If you plan to drink the wine within 2 years of bottling, any of the corks we sell will work for your needs. On the other hand, if you plan to age your wine longer than 2 years, you need to look at the Perfect Agglomerate cork, Altec cork, bi-disk cork or natural cork. You will get at least 5 years out of the Perfect Agglomerate cork and Altec corks and 5-10 years from the bi-disk and natural corks.

We have also found a synthetic cork that will give you up to 5 years of storage. The bad news is that we won't have them until late this year. They will be arriving with our next shipment from Italy. They will be #9 in both 1.5" and 1.75" and the prices will be very competitive with the agglomerate corks.

I would hate to see you lose a bottle aged wine due to the cork leaking. I will also add that we have sold well over 2 million of the perfect corks without a single reported incidence of leakage. The one drawback to these corks is their density. Even though we include them with our starter packages, they can be difficult to insert with a hand corker if you don't follow our video instructions. They can also be difficult to remove with some of the corkscrews on the market.

I would also recommend upgrading to a floor corker when you have the budget available. Not only are they easier to use, they also compress the cork during the insertion process which makes a cleaner look on the cork.