Tonight, as promised, we jumped the gun on "open that bottle night" by opening a good bottle with a dinner of salmis de cuisses de canard (duck legs slow cooked in a red wine sauce) that was given to me by Ian Hoare. The wine was:
1988 R. Groffier Chambertin Clos de Beze color: pale ruby going orange at the rim nose: initially, a big whack of barnyard with classic Pinot fruit beneath; as time wore on, the fruit became deeper and more intense with a smoky element and minerality palate: medium body, good acidity, soft Pinot fruit, smoke, minerals
This bottle was a leaker: the cork was saturated and moldy but the fill was high, leading me to worry about heat damage. The nose, however, was fresh and lively with no sign of overt cooking. All in all, this was probably the second most memorable Burgundy of my life, second only to the '88 Dujac Clos de la Roche. A great match with the salmis, and one can only wonder if a pristine bottle would be even better.
For some reason I see a lot of Burgundy bottles that have been filled right to the bottom of the cork so even if the wine expands a little bit it tends to push through the cork. After reading your post I went to my cellar and did a quick check and found that roughly 15% of my burgundy (at least the bottles in the racks...I couldn't check the ones still in cases) had some evidence of leaking.
I have had the 1972 R. Groffier Chambertin Clos de Beze. Although it was from a light year that was high in acid, it kept very well and took many years to smooth out enough. Even very light years of Burgundy from top vineyards sometimes can last very well and improve with time, although it is doubtful if such wines are worth buying and having to wait many years at today's high prices even for rather ordinary years.
I have just inspected all of my bottles over the past few days. I do this about every 2 years now, since I have some rather old wines. If some bottles show a much lower level than others or if there is even slight evidence of possible leakage, I first stand the bottle up for a few days. I then cut the foil off of the top of the bottle down a little from the top. I clean all of the exposed glass and top of the cork very well and finally wipe well with pure grain alcohol. I then let the prepared bottles stand upright for a day or two to dry well. I at one time used pure beeswax to seal the bottles. However I have found a company that sells sealing wax for corked bottles in one pound bags of pellets in various colors. If the level of the cork is a bit below the top of the neck, I first fill the depression full of melted sealing wax and allow to solidify. I next invert the bottle and dip into melted sealing wax, and rotate as I lift it from the wax. After an hour or so, I recoat with sealing wax another time or two. I just finished doing this today for about 10 bottles. One was an 1880 vintage Madeira. Like much old vintage Madeira, the bottle came with sealing wax over the top rather than foil. Old sealing wax sometimes becomes quite easy to crack. In this case, there was a small crack in the wax at the top. I have lost very few bottles over the years due to cork failure since I started keeping a close watch on the older bottles and waxing ones for which there was even slight doubt.
I have only had to recork 2 or 3 bottles over the years, and all were fortified wines. In these cases the cork fell in the bottle, so there was no choice other than to recork. After removing the cork from the bottle with a tool, I dropped in enough glass marbles, that had been washed with alcohol, to bring the level up into the lower neck, if needed. I have a few quality corks. One heats the cork in boiling water for a while to make it soft and clean it. Then I use a hand corker to insert the cork in the bottle. After a few days, I seal with sealing wax.
Of course if you plan to sell wine, removing the top of the foil and using sealing wax is a last resort, since this likely will lower the resale value of the wine, often greatly. Many will think the wine might not have been stored properly, even though the real problem is just a physical one with the cork. If you recork, the problem on resale is even worse. In addition to questions about storage, some may wonder if the level was very low and you refilled with something else, or perhaps you enjoyed the wine and refilled the bottle with something else. For an extremely expensive old wine, you likely would need to recork, or hire someone to recork, in the presence of a notary who would observe and testify that the bottle was just recorked with a new cork and do this on a label with the notary seal and glued to the bottle while the notary is still watching.
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