Bottle condition - signs of seepage

All of us worry about provenance, especially when buying older bottles from grey or auctions. Personally, I don’t care about label conditions such as bin soiled labels, nicked or torn labels, importer stickers, etc and hope bottles are priced down or sell for less, although still worry about provenance. The one description that is a deal breaker for me is SOS, not worth the risk to me. Am I too risk averse about this issue? How much of a discount would it take for you to take a flyer on a bottle with SOS? What is your experience with seepage bottles? TIA.

There are a few producers who are notorious overfillers on the production line so I wouldn’t be scared off by signs of seepage there.

Call me chicken…but I never buy/bid on those bottles.

Keith, which producers? SoS is also a deal breaker for me. Maybe I would a bit more tolerant if I knew which producers overfill.

Lots of older Sauternes seep and are still excellent wines.

I’ve consumed a boatload of older bordeaux bottles (70s, 80s) that have seeped a bit – crusty under the foil, crumbly fully stained cork, etc – that have held terrific wine. Thirty-year old corks are a problem – they allow some seepage, but the wine can remain fine. What I do avoid at all costs is buying or bidding on any bottles with “slightly protruding corks” – suggesting heat damage at some point in the bottles life . . .

While I never purposely bid on bottles with seepage, I have had some show up with such an issue. My experiences have generally been quite good. If the price is low, I would consider taking a chance on a bottle showing old signs of seepage, as long as the cork is not depressed, or protruding, and the ullage is looks good.

Donnhoff and a lot of other Germans. Leroy. Raveneau, but the yellow wax can hide the seep if it doesn’t crack.

Since I know you’re a balla. Leroy is the worst. Pull a leroy cork after a 8-10 years of age and a good chance the cork is soaked.

Besides overfilling, are there any other benign reasons or conditions that could cause seepage? A few years back, I got a bunch of new release Bordeaux- one had a cork completely soaked to the top, cork was soft, there was wine residue and some mold on the top of the cork, but there was no cork protrusion. I immediately thought heat damage, but are there logical and benign reasons for such an occurrence?

Does that pertain to Maison Leroy also? [wink.gif]

Balla status revoked.

[quote=“Harold Fong”]Besides overfilling, are there any other benign reasons or conditions that could cause seepage? A few years back, I got a bunch of new release Bordeaux- one had a cork completely soaked to the top, cork was soft, there was wine residue and some mold on the top of the cork, but there was no cork protrusion. I immediately thought heat damage, but are there logical and benign reasons for such an occurrence?[/quote

Shipping, for some reason I have seen perfectly good bottles leak after being shipped across the country, mostly on mags though…

I had a 1990 Leroy Bonnes Mares this past week, the wax had all cracked off the top and there was visible seepage through the cork, presumably from their tendency to overfill. The wine was beautiful, no signs of any problems or advanced aging.

I am one who believes that wine is far hardier in general than most wine geeks believe, so I would probably be willing to roll the dice on some seepage bottles, but the problem was (on winebid at least) there rarely seemed like more than a slight discount for buying those bottles, so why take the chance. If the price were 1/3 lower or something, I could see it.

Balla. I need to drink with you sometime.

I believe Ponost also used to have an issue.

Rieslings with seepage do not scare me (or other wines with residual sugar for that matter). The high sugar content often causes the corks to deteriorate and seep a bit I have had many stellar bottles that had some seepage.

I think it’s the low pH, not the RS.

Stupid question here - but don’t you need to cut off the foil to see signs of seepage? I haven’t noticed seepage on some of my older bottles until I cut off the foil. Is there any harm in cutting off the foil?

Other than aesthetics, no harm.