ChrisinCowiche
Posts: 7845
Joined: 12/16/2009 From: Cowiche, WA Status: offline
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Ok Microbiologists, explain this one. 2017 Gewurztraminer bottled 18 cases last winter. Before bottling I added what I thought was enough potassium sorbate, filtered it sterile through a mini-jet set of pads, and added back ~0.5% Sugar after tasting trials since I preferred this particular wine to have a hint of sweetness vs. totally dry. I used two type of closures, agglomerated wooden cork and Nomacork brand plastic corks. Partly by necessity since that's what my local supply shop had when I bought, but also to see if I liked the plastic. In the spring, I noticed a few bottles had gone fizzy, not all maybe but some, and it is not a good wine. A few popped through the summer for Mimosas, whatever. Yesterday during my wine moving I decided to uncork and dump the fizzy wine and maybe salvage it somehow. I started randomly popping and dumping case by case, about 20 bottles in, into a case with the wooden corks, corkscrew in one hand, pile of mostly plastic corks in a basket, and funnel in carboy, I realized something. The bottles under natural wood, agglomerated corks, were not fizzy. The bottles under Nomacork, synthetic plastic, were fizzy. Testing this theory of differentiation based on cork type going forward, proved true through another half case of wood, no fizz, plastic another 5 cases total, all fizzy. All the wine had been treated the same prior to bottling although I do bottle from carboys, getting about 2 cases per 5 gallons, and I do a similar routine with corks in a bath of sodium metabisulfite before use. I thought maybe the wood corked ones had fermented too, just didn't hold pressure due to air seeping across the cork, but a bottle I tasted late yesterday after chilling had sugar to my palate a still wine just like I intended when I bottled, the plastic cork stuff has yeasty notes and other undesirable flavors, and inconsistent fizz. So, why did the plastic closure cause fermentation while the wood based closure did not? Free case of Gewurztraminer, unfizzy I think, to anyone with an answer I can understand.
< Message edited by ChrisinSunnyside -- 10/8/2018 1:04:35 PM >
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