• Keep the KORKED™ stoppers inside the packaging until they are used..
  
• Keep the KORKED™ stoppers at a temperature between 10°C and 25°C.
  
• Store the KORKED™ stoppers in clean and dry zones away from cork products and in zones that are smell free.
  
• The stocks of KORKED™ must be used within 10 months from the date of manufacture shown on the label affixed to each carton of KORKED™.
  
• At the end of a bottling procedure, each left stopper must be removed from the stoppering machine hopper and resealed in its plastic bag.
  
• KORKED™ stoppers must be managed according to a rotation method: "first in, first out (FIFO)".

General reference guide for bottling with KORKED™

Getting ready for bottling

• Before bottling, the specific characteristics of the bottle must be known.
  
• Before bottling with KORKED™, the stoppers hopper, the jaws and all the contact points must be cleaned and sterilized.
  
• Check that the stopper jaws do not have damaged edges, as they could cause folds or cuts on the surface of the KORKED™ stopper.
  
• The stoppering machine jaws must not overheat.
  
• At the moment of insertion, the compression diameter of the jaw for the stopper must be between 16.0 and 16.5 mm.

• During the bottling the temperature of the wine should vary between 16°C-21°C. If the wine is bottled at a temperature below 16°C, the filling temperature must be lowered accordingly ( see bottling tables ) to take account of the expansion of the wine due to the increased temperature.
  
• Korked srl grants the correct working of KORKED™ stopper, provided the bottles have a cylindrical neck, at least 45mm long up to its edge.

Ideal pressure on head space

Bottling machine conditions

• Inserting KORKED™ requires a traditional stoppering machine equipped with a depresser. The pressure of the head space must not exceed 0.3 Atm at 20°C.
  
• The stoppering machine with depresser must be calibrated and periodically checked.
  
• During the bottling, the head space pressure should be regularly chacked by a standard pressure gauge.

Bottling phases

• KORKED srl recommends careful checkings during each bottling phase and the most relevant information should be recorded. It is suggested to pay particular attention to the following variables: chemical analysis of wine before and after bottling, head space pressure, production date, stopper batch number, bottle type and group number.
  
• The height levels must be kept unchanged and steady for the head space at 15 mm (+/-2 mm) at 20°C, anyways not different from what indicated on the bottle bottom.
• The correct stoppering is indicated by the upper stopper level at 1mm below the bottle neck edge.

Wine shipping and storage

• During shipping, the wine must not be subjected to temperatures above 35°C.
• The wine should be stored and shipped at temperatures between 14°C and 20°C.
• To protect the elastometric and physical properties of the KORKED™ stoppers, ship and store the bottles vertically.