Cork Leak?

[Kirstin]

Just put a bottle of red on its side and I saw the red wine come all the way up the side of the cork but stopped just before leaking...

What have I done wrong? :shock:

 

[oldbloke]

Was it originally a screwtop bottle? Their necks are a weensy bit wider.
Otherwise, bad luck with manufacturing tolerances on the bottle or cork or both.

The cork should swell a bit so if it hasn't come /all/ the way out, you may be OK.
I'd be tempted to re-cork (or re-bottle) that one though

 

[Kirstin]

Thanks OldBloke.... Yes it was originally a screwtop - thanks very much for the info - that's me on the hunt for some more suitable bottles for future lol :)

 

[oldbloke]

Melt some wax across the top to seal it, maybe. Or even just a smear of vaseline or something. Just to make sure it's airtight.

 

[Kirstin]

Ta - will do. It will be drunk very soon anyway, I just didn't want it dribbling all over my carpet - noticed as I was about to place it horizontally in my nice new wine rack

 

[Leeds Chimp]

are you better off not corking screw tops then???

 

[oldbloke]

Well if the corks aren't going to fit properly....
Also the necks tend to be a bit thinner as well as slightly wider so there's a bigger breakage risk when you whack the cork in
It'd be better (imho, obv) to re-use the screwcap, or source new screwcaps (saw a link on this forum once, somewhere)

 

[Moley]

Was it originally a screwtop bottle? Their necks are a weensy bit wider.

Internal diameters of screw necked bottles vary quite considerably and range from a weensy bit wider to a hell of a lot wider.

As oldbloke said, there's also a higher risk of breakage if you try corking them. I only use them for giveaways or for wines which are going to be drunk young, and I re-use the screw caps where I still have them or I use plastic stoppers. Sometimes these stoppers only fit loosely and sometimes they don't touch the sides at all, so I usually test the fit before I even bother removing labels.

I only store these bottles upright and would never lie one on its side in a wine rack, nor would I ever place a wine rack on carpet.

 

[hillbillycat65]

I had a similar problem when i bought some cheaper corks from Morrisons, my usual corks are the Favourite brand and never had a problem with these and a lot of my bottles are screw top but the Morrisons corks must be slightly smaller in diameter because I noticed a seepage down the side of the cork although they never actually leaked just caused a problem removing the cork due the wine seepage acting like glue and the centre of the cork being pulled out leaving the rest stuck in the bottle. I soon changed back to Favourite. No problems after that.

 

[Kirstin]

Hmmm - that might be the issue - always used to use Favourite from my LHBS, but now that is closed I had to had to use some from the net instead... thanks for pointing that out.