# Cork leaking?



## DasK (Feb 9, 2013)

Anyone seen anything like this before? It almost looks like wine is leaking through the cork.

When I touch it, it has a gooey consistency and tastes very tart, almost like my apple wine. (This is a Pinot Gris)

This is the only bottle doing this.


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## Rocky (Feb 9, 2013)

DasK, a quick look at your bottles indicates that you have the bottles too full. It appears as though the wine is up against the cork. I like to leave 3/4" to 1" of space between the wine level and the cork.


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## DasK (Feb 9, 2013)

Rocky said:


> DasK, a quick look at your bottles indicates that you have the bottles too full. It appears as though the wine is up against the cork. I like to leave 3/4" to 1" of space between the wine level and the cork.



I leave a bit of space. These are resting on their sides in my wine rack. They've been up there there since around July.

Here's a shot of a different bottle standing up.


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## btom2004 (Feb 9, 2013)

Everything looks fine. Maybe that one cork hopefully was defective. However my wife purchased some wine and they all started leaking when you lay them on the sides. Started with one, then they all did it. I would change those corks, if any others start to leak.


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## JohnT (Feb 9, 2013)

Actually, it looks like you have the bottles not full enough. Try filling to just about a finger width below the cork.


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## Rocky (Feb 9, 2013)

DasK, this is really new to me. It appears that the wine is coming _through_ the cork and not _around_ it. A few questions may help us help you. What size cork did you use? They appear to be 1 3/4" long but are they #8 or #9? What did you use to insert the cork, i.e. a hand corker, floor corker, etc? Did you do anything to the corks before inserting them, e.g. boil them (hope not!) or soak them in k-meta? What brand of cork are you using or where did you buy them?

The cork you are using is made up of coarsely ground cork and a binder. Something appears to have degraded the binder.

BTW, as I see the bottles standing, I agree with JohnT. They need to be fuller (something above the shoulder of the Bordeaux bottle that you are using). A finger width is good depending on how large your fingers are. I don't think the low level in the bottle is realted to this problem.


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## BobF (Feb 10, 2013)

I had this happen with a batch I corked with cheap-wine-kit 1-1/2" agglomerate corks. It wasn't the kit wine, it was a small batch of orange I bottled in 375s. I think one or two out of 10 or so bottles did this.

They drank fine and the others still haven't started leaking.


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## jimmyjames23 (Feb 10, 2013)

Try Zorks. They're resealable, reusable and don't leak. 
How long do you intend on storing your wine? If you're drinking your wine and not storing it for a long period I see no reason to store them on their sides. 
My concern would not only be what is coming out through the cork but what might be getting into to bottle.


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## tonyt (Feb 10, 2013)

Sounds like ONE bad cork. I read years ago to expect 8% of natural corks to fail. I'm sure they are better now but we can still expect some to fail. Pull it and recork or just chill it and drink it. It's time for a taster anyway.


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## Rocky (Feb 10, 2013)

I agree with Tonyt. I missed the part where this was only happening to one bottle. Sorry. It was probably just a bad cork.


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