BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Wine Collecting Corks and Bottles

I have decided that I am going to start collecting corks and bottles for my kitchen.

Right now, I am just collecting ones that capture my fancy. If I like the color, or the design - into the collection it goes!

Is there anyone else that collects these items?

I hesitate to admit that I have TONS and tons of wine corks. I am a wine writer and I was saving them all for projects, over the past many years, and never found any projects for them. So I am tempted to just list them on CraigsList and have someone come take them all!

My kitchen window is full of cobalt blue bottles. I also have a few suncatchers but mostly old bottles, several that are noxema, some bromoseltzer and a few wine bottles my mom saved for me.

"Is there anyone else that collects these items?"

Do you mena anywhere or the folks here? If you mean anywhere, bottle collecting is a huge hobby.

Cork collecting is probably not so big, but I am sure there are likely some.

You posted this in the "Wine" section of Bella. Do you mean to collect only wine bottles?

Lisa, this month's edition of Body & Soul had an article on green things for under $25. One of the things was to make trivets with wine corks--just put them together in a round shape and then secure with a clamp and then cut the end of the clamp off. Looked cool & easy.

I went & got the magazine. For a medium trivet, they used 50 corks about the same size & stood them upright in a tight circle & secured with an 8 to 10 inch metal hose clamp. (from the plumbing section of the hardware store--you'd recognize it once you see it. You might need metal clippers to cut the end of the clamp off, but I think you can bend it & break it off, too. If you want to take a peek, it's page 103 in the April issue.

There are some other cute ideas, too--I love the one on the cover with the tiny greenish bottles as a vase grouping. I have some little wine bottles I can do that with.

I keep all my corks in a vase in the kitchen bay window. When it gets full i put them in a reused quart ziplock and label it "crafts" with a sharpie, then bring it to goodwill.

These two "crafty" ideas above are the kinds of things that are done by cork hoarders as opposed to collectors.

Nothing wrong with it, I hoard cigar bands.

Deb - it's not that I don't know what to do with the corks I have tons of crafts I've done -

http://www.wineintro.com/products/gifts/



The thing is I lately just don't have the time or interest in doing it. No new projects have struck my fancy. There's only so many cork trivets I personally need So I'd rather give them to someone else who does want to use them.

A friend of mine makes really cool wreaths with wine corks. I think she just hot glues them to a wreath, covering it completely, and then adds a few grapes and curly twigs. They come out really nice and make great gifts for wine lovers.

we used to have a "cork board" at home that was done with all the wine corks and champagne corks from the weddings in my family. I loved it. It was a connection to all my family and was cherished. I wish I could have got it when my parents passed but one of my siblings did.

in fact I am thinking about doing one. I should ask the restaraunts I go to and have wine for the corks when I go out with my friends. it could be a souvenier (sp) of my travels with them

Jase. please do one! You are so creative. I think it would be so awesome.

" I should ask the restaraunts I go to and have wine for the corks when I go out with my friends"

The server should be presenting the cork to you whether or not you want it.

This developed to prevent any chicanery on the part of the seller, such as refilling a bottle of Chateau X over and over again with the house wine.

I was watching some tv program the other day and this lady had been collecting corks for 30 yrs. She totally covered her car with them and had all kinds of neat stuff she made with them. A local bar saved corks for her. I can't remember now what show it was on...I hate that...this will drive me crazy!

To answer FrankJBN - yes, I am going to just collect wine bottles.....and wine corks...

Lisa, your stuff is cool, of course! Now, I'm wanting a cork trivet myself. I'm not very crafty but I can probably do the hose clamp one.

Over the years I have collected (or I guess it is really just saved) a few bottles. The 1970 Ch.Beycheville is my most recent addition - and currently stands as the only one I have (and the only 35 year old Bordeaux I have ever drunk).

I think back fondly to the first Medoc I ever drank - had that bottle for years and years. It being the 70s at the time, I made a candle holder of it.
Ch. Mouton Baronne Phillippe - for just a few years this historic wine was named and dedicated to the Baroness Phillippine (sp?) and the label was thus different from the former and latter runs.

I have collected/saved labels for years and have not lost them over the years. I somehow think I will never make more than the first (and only) collage I put together some years ago, but hope springs eternal, eh?

Hi, I hi, I really like all the ides here for collections of corks and bottles. I too have way too many corks. I like the trivet ideas.
liz ras