seepage around cork query

Hi all, I was wondering whether someone might be able to offer some advice regarding the condition of the corks in several bottles of vintage port. In short, I've just begun to unpack my belongings, after they were shipped over from the UK to the US. It would appear most of my wine came through unscathed (thank god!), but several bottles of 1997 Niepoort appear to have partially disgorged, with a slight dark purple trickle around the edges of the now broken capsules. I've posted a few pictures of the bottles to

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, in order to give you some sense of how they appear. All of the bottles were shipped by sea freight, packaged professionally, and packed in the center of the container to minimize temperature fluctuation. Most of the other bottles appear to be alright -- in light of their age (a few '48s, many '60s & '63s) -- including several from the same lot. The problem is that the bottles were originally purchased in bond, and so this is the first I've seen of them. Everything is insured, so I'd be most grateful for any advice on how best to proceed, what condition I can expect the port to be in, and so on. Many thanks in advance, yours, Richard

Reply to
berubah
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Richard, if the corks have pushed out as they appear to have in your pictures, this would unfortunately appear to be heat damaged despite the precautions you mentioned. Corks can sometimes leak because of structural problems but when you have pushed-out corks as well as leakage, that means pressure built up in the bottle at some point during shipment and high temperatures are the only plausible explanation I know of. I'm not sure about port - being relatively high alcohol, I would expect it to be relatively insensitive but not immune to heat damage. If I were you, though, the big question I would ask is what's happened to the other wines - if it was all shipped together, it presumably all suffered the same conditions. My guess is the only reason they didn't show the same damage is that being older vintages fill levels were lower than in this '97. So when the wine expanded with heat, in the older wine there was compressible headspace, the pressure increase in the bottle was small and the corks didn't come out. In the newer wine headspace was small so the wine volume changes caused high pressure in the bottle, forcing the corks out and wine past the corks.

Sorry I can't give you better news - maybe others will have a different diagnosis. I also can't offer much advice in dealing with the insurance company but if your insurance covers the wine against heat damage, I would be inclined to show them your photos as evidence of the abuse and make a claim for the whole lot - those older wines are going to be very fragile and it's hard to imagine how they wouldn't be cooked now. In other words, the worst damage may well be to bottles showing no outward problem.

Just out of curiosity, was the shipment from the UK to the West Coast? In other words, could the ship have transited the Panama Canal? If the shipment was to the East Coast, was this recent - in the summer? In either case, all bets are off - it's good to pack the wine the way you described but it's not going to protect anything if, for example, the ship sits in port for a few days before unloading.

Good luck!

- Mark W.

Reply to
Mark Willstatter

That's one explanation. The other that comes to my mind is - since the other bottles do not show signs of damage - that these bottles were exposed to excessive heat sometime *before* this shipment. Since Richard had never seen them beforehand, it might be interesting to know the provenance of the bottles.

M.

Reply to
Michael Pronay

what's

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is the

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Yes Michael - I quite agree - the question is, when did the heat damage occur? Nevertheless, the wine has certainly been damaged - seepage means wine out, equals air in, which equals wine oxidation. Readers will also be aware of experiments over recent years by winemakers exposing wine to high heat for a couple of days to invoke artificial ageing. I assume ssomething similar has happened here, altho' inadvertently. Cheers! Martin

Reply to
Martin Field

Well, having read your comments, my worst fears were confirmed. So I did the natural thing. I panicked. Went down to the cellar, brought up a '98 Ch. Puligny-Montrachet Clos de Chateau and a '95 Sterling Vineyards Cabernet, put some cheese on a plate, and sat my family down for a tasting... wait for it... YES THEY WERE FINE!!! Okay, the cabernet wasn't going to be the most delicate of wines, so perhaps it might have survived. But the fill level on the Puligny was (hardly surprisingly) within half a centimetre of the cork, and there was no disgorgement (if that's a word) -- and its delicate charms were fully intact. In any event, things are beginning to look promising for my wines generally speaking. Tomorrow my wife and I are going to go down to the cellar and start opening wooden boxes to see if the other bottles look okay. I thought we'd open a '63 Warres tomorrow night and, if it's okay, it'll be time to ring the wine merchant in London who originally sold me the Niepoort. Then, of course, a call to the cellars in Corsham who stored it... Please do keep the advice coming

-- it's much appreciated. Thanks guys -- I'll let you know how things go tomorrow night... all the best, R

Reply to
berubah

Hi (once again), Well, perhaps all is not well. I have just pulled the cork on a '63 Warres... The wax capsule was in perfect shape, leading me to think things were going to be alright. But it popped off almost too easily when I put a knife to it, only to reveal a soaked cork. The cork itself however seemed -- other than that -- to be in rather good condition, coming out without a hitch. So I decanted. Color was lighter than I'd expected, as was the sediment; and the first sip seems to have a certain almost bitter edge. Subtle yet undeniable -- and perceptible on the nose as well. It has only been exposed to air for ten minutes now, so I'm suspending judgement until it has had an hour or two to open up. Any thoughts guys? We shipped around 150 bottles of quite serious port. I fear we may have to make a rather large insurance claim. Have any of you had experience with this before? Advice would be most appreciated. All the best, Richard

Reply to
berubah

A lot of insurance companies do not understand that you still have the wine, but it is ruined. After hurricane Andrew a restaurant in Miami made a rather large claim to their insurance because their wine cellar was without power (but otherwise intact) for 2 weeks. The last I heard (years ago) it was still in the courts.

Fred.

snipped-for-privacy@berubah.org (berubah) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com:

Reply to
Fred

I don't think it's possible to know whether this has anything to do with any possible heat damage. It's not unusual for a '63 *anything* that hasn't been recorked to have a saturated cork and anyway heat wouldn't have caused the cork to become soaked. I'd be more inclined to think that's just the way this wine is - although it's easy to understand how the episode has caused paranoia to creep in.

- Mark W.

Reply to
Mark Willstatter

Thanks, Mark -- and to the rest of you as well. In my panicked state yesterday evening, I poured a short glass, covered it with plastic wrap securing the seal with a rubber band, and took a short trip out to visit a knowledgeable acquaintance. He suggested that the port tasted older than he would've expected, but that it seemed alright -- and actually quite agreeable. (I agreed.) The color was unexpectedly light, with that aged brick hue and almost clear right at the edges. A little worrying. It was increasingly pleasant on the nose as the minutes passed, but there was also a slight zip on the finish that was less than promising; but it dissipated after the first 45 minutes or so. As the evening wore on, the wine improved. But I was nervous. Then we left it alone for 24 hours, and this evening it was an entirely different beast altogether. It had -- believe it or not -- seemed to acquire a certain youthful vigor -- and even (yes, I know this is hard to believe) a deeper color and what appeared on the edge of the glass (and on the palate) to be an increased viscosity. Tonight it was a truly delightful wine. In any event, I've posted a couple of pictures to

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and would be most grateful for any comments on the appearance of the capsules. With regard to the Niepoort '97, I fear I will have to make a claim. The disgorgement and seepage is fairly common across all three cases and the additional 6 loose bottles as well. So it goes. Many thanks again for all your comments, best, R

Reply to
berubah

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