At least I know I'm not the only one.

[SarahRides]

So my hubby and I went to open a bottle of wine we bought a few weeks ago. It is from a winery down the street from my parents, it just opened 4 weeks ago (from grapes that were made from last fall's harvest). We noticed one of the bottles was leaking from the cork, so figured we should open it for dinner tonight. It was fizzy, cloudy and tasted pretty bad, it looked like the wine was actually leaking through the cork (we split the cork in half to see). It tasted nothing like what we tasted in the winery. We'll probably give them a call just to let them know, in case they want to check any more of their bottles! Too bad, it was really good (for a young red) when we tried it there.

 

[robie]

Sounds like it wasn't quite finished doing it's thing in the fermenter.

 

[Runningwolf]

Sarah, what kind of wine was it and was it a dry or semi? Sounds like it started to referment or maybe started an mlf. I had this happen last year with my Country Apple, but it only happened with one bottle out of about 45.

 

[SarahRides]

It was a semi-sweet blend, I don't remember which grapes, I believe one of them was an Alicante (they did tell us, I just forgot . Most of their grapes were harvested from UMass School of Agriculture. (Since they just planted their vines last year, they obviously don't have their own yet).

 

[Runningwolf]

It was a semi-sweet blend, I don't remember which grapes, I believe one of them was an Alicante (they did tell us, I just forgot . Most of their grapes were harvested from UMass School of Agriculture. (Since they just planted their vines last year, they obviously don't have their own yet).

I'm pretty sure then it is a refermentation. It'll be interesting to see what they have to say or if they admit to having any other problems with that wine. I know if I was them I would be pulling a few bottles after you call them to check them out.

 

[Minnesotamaker]

I've had similar disappointing experiences with some of the winery start-ups here in MN. Some wineries seem to do really well while others could use some more "learnin".

 

[JohnT]

I agree with runningwolf. The wine was not correctly fined, and there was residual sugar. I would guess that you probably let the wine reach temps in the high 60's or greater.

Once the yeast re-activated in the bottle, CO2 was produced. This would build up pressure in the bottle that the cork was never designed to hold. As a result, my guess is that the cork did not leak as much as wine was being pushed past the cork.

If you buy another bottle of this wine, store it in the fridge. That should help.

johnT.

 

[joeswine]

It happens to the best

EVEN THE PRO'S HAVE A HARD TIME WITH THE CHEMISTRY AT TIMES

 

[SarahRides]

I had figured it had re-fermented, if they had backsweetened it and then bottled. I told my mother about it, since they are right down the street from her, she's going to just stop in this weekend. We'll see what they have to say!

 

[saramc]

Hopefully they will replace that bottle. Any reputable winery will do that.
Had that happen to me when I pulled a case of wine to stock shelves at a friend's winery...noticed the box was damp. Was wondering if someone spilled something, or had a bottle cracked/a cork leaked. Opened the case and one bottle blew when I touched it. Immediately opened the entire case and poured them out, contacted the vintner. Later found out that the person who was supposed to have stabilized the wine did not do so until the vintner asked as they were bottling. Fortunately we only lost 2 cases because they were so wrapped up in emptying the gravity filler and stabilizing 250+ gallons that they forgot about the 2 cases that had already been bottled. It happens.