What to do if the cork breaks?
If the top part of the cork breaks off with the bottom part still in the bottle you may remove the broken top piece from the corkscrew and gently try to reinsert the corkscrew into the bottom piece along the side of the cork.
If you are unable to remove the bottom piece this way or it seems that the bottom piece is just crumbling or being pushed down into the wine, stop!
If you have an Ah So cork remover, you may try to remove the piece of cork still in the bottle.
If not: get the guest another bottle and save the bottle with the broken cork for cooking or personal drinking after later having shoved the cork down into the bottle of wine and poured the wine through a filter or cheesecloth to remove the pieces of cork.
A crumbling cork almost always indicates improper storage of the bottle at some time in the past.
Pieces of cork floating in wine do not mean a “corked” wine. It’s just wine with cork pieces!