Bottle seepage

Sometimes it is not the corks but the corker itself. I used to have leakers using the Potugese corker with the plastic iris. It left grooves and punctured the cork at times. When I switched to the Italian, my leaking bottle problem disappeared. Tim

Bottle seepage is usually caused by pressure changes in the bottle/headspace. Seepage can cause the ingress of significant volumes of air into the bottle resulting in excessive oxidation of the wine. It should be avoided at all costs.

In long term cases this is usually due to temperature fluctuations. Usually maintaining a more constant "cellar" temperature is enough to solve the problem.

In short term cases (like your own situation), the bottling procedure itself causes an increased headspace pressure. It is common to leave bottles *standing* just after bottling to help alleviate the pressure difference (between inside the bottle and atmosphere) and thus avoid seepage.

Ben

Improved Winemaking

Could be quite a few variables that caused this; poor quality corks, irregular bottles, as mentioned, a faulty corker that is damaging the corks or too much pressure in the bottle still to lay down. If the wine wasn't fully degassed before bottling, the extra pressure created will cause seepage. If I was you, I would take the bottles to the sink and wash them up. Then leave them standing for another few days to let the pressure equalize without pushing out your wine. I always stand the bottles for a week before laying down. Thad

Basic answer - no it is not normal or desirable.

Solution: Could be any of the suggestions or other things but you need to find out what is causing it.

Ray

Or over soaking the corks. I had that with a few corks I left soaking for a time before corking. Ed snipped-for-privacy@snet.net

Just like to add that some lot of corks are 'silicone washed'. You can spot this by a sort of greasy wax finish. Some of them are obviously filled with some sort of wax and it's obvious. Corks like this should not be soaked at all and doing so can cause the cork to break up when you try to take it out. Some people boil the corks and this is very bad for these corks. Peter

I started dipping corks in boiling water on the advise of a very well respected book on making wine. Every cork that I have done this with has failed and leaked within a year or two. Maybe less.

Ray

Equalization pressure could be the culprit. I, and some others, have used a small plastic tie wrap around a dowel with the end inserted into the neck while bottling. After corking, let the tie wrap stay in a few seconds and pull out. You'll find a fair amount of wine(y) gas will come past the tie wrap in the neck.

I don't use this practice anymore, it was more just to try it.