What to do when your Cork Breaks in your wine bottle!

Corks can break and crumble on old wines, or when a clunky corkscrew causes a problem.

Don’t stress. If the cork breaks in half and the remaining half is stil intact, simply give it another go and see if you can extract the rest. If the cork has completely crumbled, the best thing to do is to push the pieces into the bottle so they don’t block the neck. Most likely, the wine won’t be harmed by the cork. Pour the wine and give it a smell to look for off-aromas. If the cork is tainted, the wine smells musty, like wet newspaper, or it has no smell. In this case, you’ll have to discard the bottle. If the wine smells fine, just ignore those pesky cork pieces and pull them out as you pour.
Or put a piece of cheesecloth on the top and secure with a rubberband - this will prevent any pieces from falling in. Put the wine into a nice decanter!