Handling sediment in the neck of the bottle?

I’ve got the hang of dealing with sediment in the bottom of the bottle. I’m wondering if anyone has tips on the chunky sediment that sometimes shows up gunked onto the bottom of the cork and in the neck of the bottle. I’ve been decanting it (not worrying about sediment at all), letting it settle, and then decanting again (this time paying attention to sediment), but I’d appreciate any other tips.

Cody, I have never seen sediment on the bottom of the cork. I would think that you would have to be storing your bottles vertically with the cork end downward in order for sediment to accummulate at the cork/neck end.

Regardless, If you stand your bottle vertically on its base for a few days, gravity will bring most of the sediment to the bottom of the bottle.

I have seen sediment that does get stuck to the side of the bottle, around the shoulders and, I suppose, around the neck. It is adhered to the side of the bottle. Therefore, to my way of thinking, it is of no consequence when I pour because it continues to adhere to the glass.

When you speak of material “gunked” onto the bottom of the cork, I’m wondering if you are seeing tartrate crystals that sometimes form right there at the bottom of the cork. Again, these are of no consequence. It is a normal chemical reaction. If, when you pull the cork, you see some residue in the neck, you can take a clean paper towel and wipe it with your finger. Or, do like I do–pour into a glass and drink.

I hope I haven’t misinterpreted your question.

I store a large portion of my bottles in the cardboard case inverted. I get buildup on the corks all the time. The first small pour usually cleans that out. Or you can use a strainer when you pour.

+1

we store all our wine from pallet to TR neck-down, and since we rarely filter, some of the bigger reds will have an accumulation of sediment on both the cork and neck of the bottle.

like Brian said: first small pour will take care of it. (and it also helps to remove the cork carefully as to not have sediment fall back into the bottle upon removal).

When I read Brian’s comment, I thought, “Why would he do that?”

My guess is that his storage relies on using the cardboard boxes for stacking. If the bottles are stored vertically, as opposed to horizontally, then, I imagine that the stacked boxes would have superior structural rigidity. The bottles themselves, and the cardboard separators in the boxes would support the weight better. If the bottles were laying on their sides, then there is more dependency on the cardboard box, alone, to support the weight of additional filled boxes stacked above.

Obviously, the bottles are stored “cork end down” in order to keep the cork wet.

Reading Paul’s comment seemed to support that same conclusion. Obviously, he does not want sagging boxes at the bottom of his palletized stacks, and, again, he wants to keep the corks wet.

I just thought of another reason, although I’m not sure that it is as good as the “stacked boxes” theory. If I have 12 bottles of wine stored on their sides in a cardboard case, and I want to remove the bottle that is in the lower right slot, it would first be prudent to remove the two bottles immediately above. If I don’t do that, then the odds are much better than even that those two bottles will fall since the cardboard separator would not be able to support them. If the wines are stored vertically, then I can remove any bottle from any slot and not worry about gravity.

Well Mark, if they were stored on their sides and I wanted a bottle of two from a lower box I would have to replace those bottles with something to prevent the stack from collapsing. I have 15 or so cases that I don’t have racking for so they reside upright with the bottles inverted, the way they come from the winery.

Yeah, Brian, that is what I was trying to write in my last paragraph. I just did not do a very good job.

Sorry, I blew past the last paragraph of your post in order to respond. newhere pileon