How long for corks to pop?

[TonyP]

I made the WE LE South African Sauvignon Blanc kit and it came great. Several friends have asked for bottles including one couple that will be traveling for a few weeks. I have no experience with corks popping or leaking and was wondering how long it takes for that to happen. It would be a disaster for them to return to find my wine all over their floor. The wine doesn't fizz or anything like that, although it has a bit of citrus to it I believe is because it's still young. I have space under the cork and kept bottles upright first few days.

Tony P.

 

[Rocky]

Tony, if the wine was fully fermented, i.e. final SG in the 0.990-0.995 range, fully de-gassed and treated with potassium sorbate, any popping of the cork would be pure happenstance. What is giving you cause for concern?

 

[TonyP]

The wine naturally degassed; I stirred by hand and mechanically for over 10 minutes with no activity. Final SG was 0.990. I didn't add sorbate because I understood it wasn't used in dry wines. BTW, it appeared from my looking over forum threads that popping usually occurred in non-dry (particularly back sweetened) wines.

I just have this vision of them coming home after a month to find my wine all over their rug.

Tony P.

 

[Arne]

If you fermented to 0.990 and the wine was degassed, if it hasn't had any sugar added to it, you should have no problem with the corks coming out. Only things that mite give you some pressure should be a great temp. change or a huge barametric change. Even at that, you should be ok. Arne.

This is my opinion only, take it for what it is worth. Arne.

 

[Bartman]

I agree with Arne. The only bottle I had pop was a bottle I was taking to a friend later in the day and forgot it in my car. Whoops - ya can't forget about that Texas summer heat. The temperature was probably 130 or more in the car after an hour or two. Fortunately, the bottle was pointing mostly up so just a little spillage, but at first I thought a ketchup packet had burst!

 

[TonyP]

Thanks for all the information here. I'm thinking about it somewhat scientifically and it seems to me (as an amateur) that SG should increase over time if I'm going to have popping issue, excluding sudden temperature changes. Thus, if I check my wine SG occasionally when I open a bottle I should be able to tell if I'm going to have an issue. For example, I may open a bottle and find my SG is 0.998. Is this correct?

Does anyone ever check SG, even out of curiosity, when they open a bottle?

Tony P.

 

[JoshDivino]

Thanks for all the information here. I'm thinking about it somewhat scientifically and it seems to me (as an amateur) that SG should increase over time if I'm going to have popping issue, excluding sudden temperature changes. Thus, if I check my wine SG occasionally when I open a bottle I should be able to tell if I'm going to have an issue. For example, I may open a bottle and find my SG is 0.998. Is this correct?

Does anyone ever check SG, even out of curiosity, when they open a bottle?

Tony P.

Scientifically, your backwards on your thinking. Your bottles will pop if refermentation occurs, which would be lowering the SG and producing CO2, good luck!

 

[saramc]

The only time I have checked the S.G. of a bottle I have opened is if I am suspicious of refermentation, or I like the "sweetness level" of that wine and want to see where it is (perhaps I failed to document my final level is my notes, or the wine was gifted to me, etc).

 

[mmadmikes1]

Only thing you need to worry about is if you didn't leave a air space under cork when bottling. The wine will expand and contract with temp variances and without an airspace you will have corks pop when it gets warmer

 

[Lurker]

What Arne said. Just watch the temp.