Unusual bottle opening

Last night, I was looking for something to open (I wanted a glass or two before bed), so I found a bottle of 2004 Seneca Lake Chancellor (hybrid) that I acquired in an exchange with another home wine maker years ago. A bit of coarse sediment quickly settled to the bottom of the bottle. I removed the capsule and pulled the cork. It seemed a bit dry, but was sound. However, when I attempted to pour it in the glass, nothing came out. A disk of tartrate crystals had formed on the bottom of the cork, sealing the neck of the bottle. After I poked it with my cork screw, it poured freely. The wine itself wasn't bad. Light crimson, nose of strawberry, rhubarb and dust, good acid, almost no tannins and a med-short finish. If I had tasted it blindfolded, I would have guessed it to be a white.

Were you storing in unusual manner? I thought that extreme of tartrates was usually from chilling colder than fridge temps.

Normal storage, on a rack in my basement. I doubt if the wine maker cold-stabilized the wine.

[Robin Garr]

Howie, i'm wondering more about something in the original wine making process that caused it to throw a lot of tartrate? That, or perhaps a bottle exposed to unusual cold at some point in its life? I expect the wine is okay, just an unusually heavy tartrate deposit, although I've heard - not experienced - that extreme tartrate precipitation can lower the wine's acidity a bit.

I've been thinking about this. Most reds are not cold stabilized, so it's likely there were abundant tartrates in the wine. My theory is that the may have been stored in a colder part of my basement at some time. I've removed corks that had a few tartrate crystals on them. If they had formed there, they could have become nucleation points for further precipitation. When I prepare to disgorge my bubblies, I place the bottles upside down in my freezer and the necks always freeze first. I attribute this to the volume to surface area ratio in the neck being much lower than the rest of the bottle. The same principle might apply here, with the neck getting cold first and causing the crystals to grow there.

Seeding whether intentional or unintentional could occur at any temperature. Robin is absolutely correct wines with high pH (> 3.6) could throw a lot more tartaric crystal (than wines with lower pH (< 3.6)) and appear out of balance (slightly flat or flabby).

Salute