[question] Question submitted by Nicholas Birjak, Australia. I opened a bottle of 2001 Yarrabank Cuvee a few days ago. However I had a gusher. It went off like a fountain for several seconds. Hitting the kitchen ceiling (2metres above the bench). One third of the wine was wasted. I phoned my supplier and they were most sympathetic. I took the remains of the wine and the cork, which had partly broken down with some remnants still in the neck of the bottle, and it was replaced. The replacement was opened without drama. The wine was superb and I wish too buy more. But wonder whether my problem was a one off. What may have caused it.?The bottle was in my cellar for three days, had not been shaken and was cooled in a fridge. [/question] [answer] The physical chemistry of bubbles in liquid is extremely complicated, but for this level of gushing to occur, something unusual must have happened. So I thought I’d ask the guy in charge of the winemaking for Yarrabank, Tom Carson, for his view on this. Tom suggests that a piece of cork probably broke off when the cork was inserted. This piece could then have provided the site from which the nucleation of bubble formation occurs, and hence the gushing. [/answer]
