#8 agglomerated corks are slightly smaller than the standard #9 corks. They are often used with hand corkers that cannot compress the standard #9's, or for bottles with smaller necks. Agglomerated corks are made from small cork pieces held together with a food grade binder.
Corks are treated with a food grade wax and silicone coating before being packaged by the manufacturer. To use, corks may be dipped briefly in a sanitizer solution and then corked immediately. Do not soak or boil corks as this can remove the silicone coating, making them difficult to remove from the bottles.
