secondary refermentation

[twodogs]

being a wine consumer we have come across many bottles of still wine with bubbles.

what is the cause?

what is happening to the wine?

why is it happening?

what is the percentage of wines facing these troubles?

cheers

[Randall Grahm]

Two Dogs,

The problem that you identify is in fact, I believe, a relatively rare one. The following scenarios are possible:

a) The winemaker has allowed carbonation to remain in his wine on purpose. Typically riesling producers in Germany will in fact inject a little bit of CO 2 into the wine just before bottlign to freshen it up a little bit.

b) It is in fact a fizzy wine, like a Brachetto d'Acqui or Moscato

c) Malolactic fermentation is going in the bottle (fairly rare) or primary fermentation has restarted in the bottle (also pretty rare)

d) Winemaker bottled his wine cold (and early) and it did not have a chance to properly de-gas before bottling. This is the most likely explanation of bubbles in the wine and is still a relatively rare occurance (maybe 5% max)

Hope that this is hopeful. Cheers, RG.