MEP Electric and Pneumatic Corkers
St. Patrick's is the exclusive authorized distributor in North America of MEP corkers. Corkers that appear elsewhere in the North American market come through an Italian distributor and do not have the technical support of St. Patrick's. Service and parts for those machines will be provided by an Italian distributor of MEP. This is particularly important because a corking machine is the most precisely operating machine in a small winery.
Gas accessories
out-of-stock till late May $2595
If you have a P12 without a hopper, you can easily convert it to the unit with a hopper.
30.5 mm cork and smaller
Movie of P55 and Wirehooder
P45Beer with Hopper
Converts the P45 bench into a floor unit. Model D. 304 stainless with heavy duty wheels.
Champagne cork have an orientation (two cork discs on bottom of agglomerated cork), so a hopper cannot be used. The P55 is the champagne corker. Mushroom cork for Belgian beer are simply microagglomerated cork—no orientation—so a hopper can be used. P45Beer is the corker for this.
We also stock cork and wirehoods for Belgian-style beer.
Wirehood Spinner G300
Movie of P55
and Wirehooder
~300 bottles/hour
~3 seconds to spin wirehood
Dimensions: 38"H x 15"W x 19"L
Weight: 76 lb
Wirehood Spinner
Model A. 304 stainless steel with heavy duty wheels. Converts wirehood spinner to floor unit. Also, if you have a P12 bench, this converts it to a floor unit.
Stelvin Screw Cap Machine
AVT440-S. 
AVT440
~800 bottles/hour (2.5 seconds per cycle)
Meets Stelvin specifications. We sent bottles to Stelvin for testing. Test results are in compliance with Stelvin specifications.
Please note: The Stelvin capper is a different capper than the olive oil capper. The Stelvin capper was designed to meet the specifications for Stelvin screw caps. In particular, the vertical load of the Stelvin capper is larger. In fact, Stelvin has tested bottles from us and confirmed that this capper meets the Stelvin specs.
The Stelvin capper will apply Stelvin and Stelvin+ 30H60 (and smaller) capsules on BVS finish bottles. 30H60 are the most popular Stelvin capsules. It will not apply Stelvin Lux (the new capsule which does not show the thread.)
Olive Oil Screw Cap Machine
AVT440-O
For olive oil and similar capsules.
Stainless Steel Pressure Tester $100 Handle and needles are stainless steel. Simple device to check the pressure under the cork. Includes 3 needles.
Replacement Gauge $20
Composite gauge. 0-30" Hg Vacuum and 0-15 psi positive pressure. 1/4" MPT. 2.5" Face.
Replacement Needles--Set of 3 $30
All stainless steel. 0.5 mm wall thickness.
Grease for Corker Jaws. See Lubricants page
Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is the correct gas to use, not Nitrogen or Argon (see below).
Complete CO2 setup with 15 lb cylinder $230
Includes everything you need to use the gas purge of the P45 corker.
15 lb CO2 cylinder, regulator, valve with nipple, Push-In fitting, and 10' of tubing. Set regulator at ~5 psi during corking.
CO2 setup without cylinder $97
Includes everything you need except the cylinder. Set regulator at ~5 psi during corking.
Components
CO2 Dual Gauge Regulator $60
Dual gauge (tank and outlet pressure). Includes stopcock/check valve which must be replaced with the ball valve with nipple and Push-In fitting, in order to use it with P45.
CO2 Cylinder--15 lb $135
Aluminum. Empty. Capacity 15 lbs. 6.89" diameter
x 22.8" Height (height does not include valve). Empty weight 16.8 lbs.
1/4" FNPT mini-Ball Valve $14
1/4" NPT Nipple $3
Push-In Fitting $5
6 mm Tubing OD x 1/4" pipe thread. Quick Connect and Disconnect. Simply push tubing in to connect. To remove, press the release ring towards the fitting and pull tubing out.
Semi-Rigid Tubing $1.00/ft
Semi-rigid tubing for use with Push-In fittings.
Nylon. -60°F to 200° F, working pressure 280 psi. 6 mm x 4 mm
Vacuum or Gas Purge? The purpose of vacuum is to reduce the pressure such that the final pressure under the cork is the same, or nearly the same, as atmospheric pressure. This virtually eliminates the possibility of the cork working its way out of the bottle over time. This problem rarely occurs with natural cork and rarely occurs for any cork if the temperature of the wine does not fluctuate from hot to cold to hot .... The factors that can increase the risk of this problem are: 1)Hard synthetic cork, 2)Temperature fluctuations of the wine and 3)slow insertion of the cork into the bottle. All of our corkers insert the cork quickly (~2 seconds) which further mitigates the potential for this problem.
Gas Purge serves the same purpose as Vacuum. The gas should be Carbon Dioxide. Nitrogen or Argon should not be used. [Carbon Dioxide is more soluble in wine than air, so replacing the air with CO2 results in lower pressure under the cork. Nitrogen and Argon are less soluble in wine than air, and thus have the opposite effect.]
A common misconception is that vacuum or gas purge is for the primary purpose of removing oxygen and thus protecting the wine from oxidation. This is a very minor effect since the headspace is quite small, air is 80% nitrogen, and you are only purging about half of the air under the best of circumstances.
For more information on this and other interesting issues such as the temperature dependence of fill levels, we recommend Practical Aspects of Corkage This book must be ordered from France.
P55
Champagne Corker
