Wine Under the Foil

I have a couple of '02 Donnhoff Norheimer Kirschheck Rieslings where the foil over the cork is distended and obviously filled with wine. The fill on the bottles is fine and there aren't any tracks down the sides of the bottles to indicate that the wine exited the foil and dripped down the bottles. I don't know if this is an obvious question or not, but I was wondering if this condition would cause WLP folks to drink these up right away or not? The wine has been perfectly stored and the other 4 bottles have perfectly sound foil. Tom V

Tom
Filled with wine or mould? It's not unusual for overfilled wines to leave a wet/sticky and quickly a mouldy deposit on the top of the cork, but below the foil. Of course if the cork is faulty, you may have a leaker, in which case I'd be cracking ASAP if the level is starting to drop. IME any wine tends to evaporate pretty quickly as foils tend not to be airtight.

If it is mould, it's nothing to worry about (though do keep an eye on the wine level). When you come to open it, I tend to wipe initially with a dry or wet piece of kitchen paper, extract the cork, then (with a clean piece of damp kitchen paper), just wipe gently around the rim. Nothing to overly worry about though.

One other final thought, sometimes you may find a protruding cork. Although possibly innocent, this sometimes betrays the bottle getting way too hot and many take a protruding cork as an indicator of potential heat damage.

regards

Ian

Ian says it well. One thing to add......I would suggest removing the foil immediately. After all, the foil is nothing more than decorative (unless you have a plague of mice in your cellar). If the corks are not protruding, fear not for the mold and bit of wine there probably represents nothing more than a bit of overfill. If the corks are proturding, even a bit, sample several bottles to check for heat damage.

Best
Rogov

These are Kab/Spatlesen (don't think I've seen a higher pradikat NK)? It could well be just overfilling. But why not just pop one to see- I find a lot of 2002s are drinking well now.

[David M. Bueker]

The 2002 Kirschheck Spatlese (that's all there is) drinks very well right now. I would open one.

Hey thanks for the input! I opened the foil and felt like a real idiot! What was under the distended foil was air! I guess the bottle let out some air and the foil was completely airtight and so it puffed up and felt just like there was wine under it when I pressed it. So, good idea, think I'll just drink a couple of my perfect bottles of '02 Kirschheck! Tom V

Tom
Thanks for coming back and don't feel foolish about it - I certainly can't recall encountering that phenomenon before. Seems like a good logical idea to introduce an airtight foil as a 2nd line of defence for cork failure

regards

Ian