By EMILY VOSS
How To Handle Broken Cork Pieces In Your Wine
Breaking a cork while opening wine is frustrating, but rest assured, even sommeliers encounter this issue. Thankfully, you can still drink the wine and the cork can be removed.
If a cork falls into your wine bottle intact, a cork retriever offers a simple solution. This tool, affordable for home use, compresses the cork then extracts it with ease.
When the cork crumbles into the bottle, decanting and filtering the wine will solve the problem. Strain it through a fine mesh strainer, cheesecloth, or a coffee filter.
Wine containing cork pieces is safe to drink. Natural corks, made from cork oak bark, are organic and non-toxic, but improper storage can cause them to become brittle.
Decomposed corks can lead to a musty, unpleasant taste in wine from 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA), a byproduct of treated cork bark. Though harmless, TCA spoils the wine's flavor.