First time corking questionI live near Presque Isle winery, and after speaking with owner Doug Moorehead decided to drop the best 48 bucks (USD) on a portugese floor corker. Doug uses...
Thanks again Dar. Yes, I am aware of bottle plants, air spaces and sediments, and the fact that it is a bit of a lottery knowing the best way to handle them. I reason that if a wine seems to be still, it is not a good idea to store it in a vessel with a lot of air at the top. If there is sediment, I rack it off, but that often re-activates it, and results in air spaces. I now know about the trick of keeping some of the wine in a fridge, to be used later for topping up, and I will use that idea in future.
To try to ascertain if a bulk stored wine is still very slowly fermenting, I gently replace the airlock a solid bung in the top. If it works its way out, or if there is a hiss of gas when taking it out, the wine is still working. I've caught a couple of them out like that, but the only redress I know is to add campden and sorbate, either of which can impart an odour and neither of which are wholly reliable.
-- Alan Gould. North Lincolnshire, UK.
