In article >,
"Dimitri" > wrote:

> "jmcquown" > wrote in message
> ...
> >I never thought such a thing would be possible but I just had an explosion
> > in my kitchen. There are glass shards everywhere! I had an empty bottle
> > of
> > merlot from last week, sitting, corked, waiting to be taken out to the
> > trash
> > and it EXPLODED. Apparently this thing built up gasses or something
> > because
> > I'd put the cork back in the empty bottle. It looks like a terrorist just
> > visited my kitchen. Don't put corks back in empty wine bottles unless you
> > intend to take them out to be disposed of immediately.
> >
> > This has been a public service announcement from someone who just cut her
> > hand on broken wine bottle glass and now has to vacuum the kitchen floor.
> >
> > Jill
> > --
> > I used to have a handle on life...but it broke off.
>
> 1. Glad you're OK.
> 2. It certainly is strange that there would be enough liquid and/or live
> culture left in the bottle to create that level of gas.
> 3. I've heard of this with full bottles but not empty ones.
> 4. As a possible explanation if you closed the bottle at a very cold time
> (weather) under a high pressure condition and then your area transitioned to
> a very low pressure hot time maybe there would be enough difference to cause
> the bottle to shatter. I do however suspect that based upon the way the class
> shattered I think there was something wrong with the glass. Maybe it was
> unduly stressed somehow.

I suspect the bottle had some microorganisms in it and they blossomed
after the bottle was re-corked. As the microorganisms grew, they
generated gas, just like yeast does when it gets warm. The gas probably
built up to a sufficient degree to pop the bottle.