Got Cork In Your Wine? Your Coffee Filter Can Remove It

For wine drinkers, there are few things more stress-inducing than botching the uncorking of a brand-new bottle. Add to that the fact that dry corks are more likely to crumble upon removal and you could have a potential disaster on your hands. Many people have experienced that special bottle they've been saving ending up full of cork dust. While using one of the best wine bottle openers can make the job as easy as it's ever been, there's always the possibility of running into a dreaded brittle cork. Thankfully, there's a simple hack using another common kitchen item that will save your wine when you accidentally get cork in it.

As it turns out, coffee filters are really good at keeping granulated powder out of your morning cup of joe. It's only logical, therefore, to assume that they'd be equally effective at keeping tiny bits of cork out of your wine. The trick to removing those unwanted particles is to place the filter over the top of a high-quality wine decanter. If you don't have one, a vessel like a jug or a punch bowl can work, too. Once the filter is in place, pour the tainted bottle through the filter so that it strains any unwanted solids out of the wine. As a bonus, well-aged bottles that contain built-up sediment at the bottom can have their unpleasant bits filtered out as well. That should help eliminate any gritty mouthfeel when drinking.

If you do end up with particles from wine aging or broken corks and find yourself without a coffee filter, don't worry: consuming these things isn't harmful to your body. Still, serving wine to others with debris floating in their glasses isn't ideal simply from an aesthetic perspective. If you really want to avoid dealing with corks altogether, the best solution is to shop for wine that's sealed by something other than this classic stopper. Nowadays, it's not uncommon to find great wines being sold in bottles with screw caps. Despite an earlier perception of them being inferior to corks, screw caps are actually just as effective at preventing oxygen from getting into the bottles. Plus, they don't require any special tools to open.

Another product people can shop for is boxed wine. There's no doubt that a lot of wine sold in boxes is just plonk but there is still decent stuff out there in higher price ranges. Like with screw caps, boxed wine eliminates cork taint and the packaging prevents the wine from oxygenating. If you haven't tasted cork taint, count yourself lucky. This spoilage caused by a contaminant present in some corks can render your wine undrinkable, but thankfully most retailers will exchange the bottle for you.