Re: Newbie Questions On Corks, etc. ?

On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:49:51 +0200, Mike Tommasi wrote:

> With a standard neck diameter of 1.85cm, this means the liquid will push
> up the neck by 2.67 cm, just over an inch. Much more if it is a high
> octane zin :-)

Really?  I know expansion occurs (that's what they taught me in science 
school) but that much?  So I did an experiment.  I took a regular 750, 
filled it to the brim with industrial grade hydrogen hydroxide, at 103 
degrees F (more or less), and corked it up tight (using my usual split 
method of using a wire to let the air out).  Then I stuck in the fridge 
overnight.  The level had dropped a good half to three quarters of an 
inch.  Wow!

Well, maybe that's just trapped g***** making its way slowly to the 
surface, so I put the bottle in the sun and summer air for a few hours, 
and the level rose halfway or more to the original level.

Making allowances for the fact that I was using a degenerate form of 
alcohol, rather than a carbonated one, and for the imprecision in my 
work, I'm convinced.

Funny how the real world works.

I still maintain however that if you start with cool wine, and keep it in 
the cooler, that the expansion due to temperature changes will not be 
much, since the temperature change will not be much.

And... if you leave no ullage when you cork up a room temperature wine in 
a smaller bottle and put it in the fridge, all that will happen is that 
as the wine contracts, air may be drawn in which would have otherwise 
been trapped by the ullage.  So no loss there either.

Jose