Cooked?

[SushiNorth]

How much cork protrusion would worry you?
I ask because the 1988 Taylor halfbottles from this thread arrived and 6 out of 9 have corks that are slightly raised (3-4 mm, enough to be noticable and to slightly bubble the capsule). They could go back, but it may not be worth it to ship them back.

[g-man]

How much cork protrusion would worry you?
I ask because the 1988 Taylor halfbottles from this thread arrived and 6 out of 9 have corks that are slightly raised (3-4 mm, enough to be noticable and to slightly bubble the capsule). They could go back, but it may not be worth it to ship them back.

i've had the same problem with a few of my older bordeauxs and it's a hit or miss
because you do have so many, i'd say pop one that looks in the worst shape. it does sound like some may have been improperly stored.

[Alex Bridgeman]

I confess, I would be a little worried about this. By 1988, virtually all of the corking was carried out by machine so the occasional spauling of a cork (where the process of inserting a cork into a bottle goes very slightly wrong with the result that the top 2-3 mm of the cork get flattened out over the top of the bottle rather than pushed into the neck of the bottle) had virtually disappeared.

My suspicion would be that the bottles have been stored poorly and heat expansion has pushed the cork out.

Are there any signs of leakage - stains on the lables, sticky patches around the capsules, low fills?

I also thoroughly agree with the advice of trying one - and the one in worst condition is as good a one to try as any other.

However, you might be lucky. These bottle might have been left overnight in a container in the sun and just got slightly too hot on just a single day with the result that the port has not been affected but the corks do show up as displaced.

Alex

[SushiNorth]

Yeah, these clearly have risen after the bottling and encapsulation process was complete. There are no other signs of leakage -- in fact they are in rather pristine condition -- but i don't know how they were stored. They were sold by a reputable dealer (JJ Buckley, the warehouse half of WC), but i don't know where they got them from. (they will be selling a lot more of these, btw, so i wouldn't recommend anyone here buy those).

I want to see what they'll do for me, having sent bottles that do not match their description, and based on that I'll be opening one of em this week to see I've a little celebration on thursday and its a good reason to test one.

[Andy Velebil]

Send them back, unless they were described as having pushed out corks (in which case you should have read the fine print). They are either heat damaged or were frozen and that pushed the corks out. I've seen both happen. Freezing is better than heat, but why risk it. Either way, I would never buy a bottle with a pushed out cork like that.

JJ BUckley is very easy to deal with...so return them and get a refund.

[SushiNorth]

I compared notes with JJ Buckley customer service rep, who confirmed it with the guy who handles the warehouse and shipping. The bottles did not go out in that condition (and technically that means they aren't liable, but they still offered to take em back), and we deduced that, as it was cold across the country at the time they shipped, they most likely froze a bit when the truck stopped for the night. The plan now is that I'm taking your (collective) advice and trying one of them at the next opportunity. If it's horrid, they'll take em back. If not, then I'll just let them recover and then drink them.

[Alex Bridgeman]

The good news is that if it was a one-off freezing overnight then you may well find that the port in the bottles is totally unaffected for the moment. The heightened cork may affect the port's ability to age for a long time and will certainly affect its resale value but will probably have no affect on whether you enjoy it or not.

Alex