Stan Horwitz wrote:
> In article >,
> Dave Smith > wrote:
>
>> Stan Horwitz wrote:
>>
>>> 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.
>>
>> And what would those micro-organisms be eating? Yeast eats sugar to
>> produce alcohol and carbon dioxide, but it stops when the alcohol
>> content gets too high or when it runs out of sugar.
>
> They would be eating the remaining liquid in the bottle. Unless Jill
> thoroughly washed out that wine bottle before she replaced the cork on
> it, there was still likely an ample supply of food in it.
>
>> I am inclined to go along with the cat theory. If the glass is all
>> on the floor and not on the counter it was probably knocked there.
>
> The cat might be a possibility too.

I'm telling you, Persia was not near the bottle when it exploded! She
jumped higher than I did when we heard the sound. In fact, at first I
thought someone had thrown a brick through my glass-front door when I heard
the sound. I think it's probably an odd case of the aforementioned
microorganisms because I sure didn't wash the bottle. And possibly the
bottle was in some way defective. And yes, the cork was one of those
newfangled rubbery ones.

Jill