Floor Corker
A Floor Corker is a device for corking bottles. It can be used for corking both Belgian bottle corks, and wine bottle corks. Other types of corkers exist, such as handheld corkers, but when corking a large amount of bottles, a Floor Corker is recommended.
Recommended Floor Corkers
Experienced Milk The Funk members recommend two Floor Corker brands [1].
- Portuguese Floor Corker (low end route) - Corking made easy. Single lever action with a brass Iris that squeezes the cork and the adjustable depth plunger pops it right in to your desired depth. Works great even on the fat Belgian beer corks and is perfect for any standard wine corks or bottles. A small amount of assembly is required (it’s like one screw, no big deal) [2].
- Italian (Ferrari) Floor Corker (high end route) - The Italian Floor Corker is the Cadillac of corkers. This corker is very similar to the Portuguese corker, but with some upgrades. It is equipped with a brass iris compression fitting instead of plastic. A long handle gives you plenty of leverage and the corks go in effortlessly. This corker is very easy to use, and will last any hobby vintner a lifetime [3].
Usage
See this instructional video from Midwest Supplies.
See this article by BYO, "Corking Belgians" by Dave Louw, July/August 2009.
For more of the cork to stick out, a spacer (such as a drilled stopper) can be set inside of the corker to create more space [4].