Freezing temps + forgotten bottle of wine = BIG MESS!

[ragingfish]

Yeah, you can probably guess where this post is going, but I shall provide the story anyway.So I bought a bottle of wine about a week or two ago with intentions of meeting an old college friend for dinner...plans fell through, and i forgot about the bottle of wine sitting in my hatch area...Well, about 2-3 days ago, my car started smelling quite rank...like something was rotting. I figured it was the few days of wrappers from dunkin donuts that were piled up in the back seat (I get lazy in terms of cleanliness in the winter). But even after throwing it all away, no relief. So when I got back in after being in the post office, I said to myself, "DAMN that's rank! Wait a minute...I know that smell...that's not rotten...THAT'S WINE!!!!"Run to the back, and sure enough, lying against the hatch door, was a brown paper bag, stained with wine, and filled with HUNDREDS of shattered pieces of glass.You guessed it. The wine bottle had exploded. So, it was cold, and I was wicked late for a meeting, but I did a quick once-over...there were puddles of wine under the cargo floor in the bin, even as far down as under the spare tire...Cargo mat is SOAKED...and that's all I confirmed before I had to leave...Had visions of what would happen if I got pulled over for some reason and the cop smelled it...ugh, that woulda been BAD!So, while it's about 25° tomorrow, I will be shivering outside trying to de-inebriate my interior...So what's your UAC (upholstery alcohol concentration)? Mine's about .8!

[Sputnik]

I'm going to assume it was red? Because if its white thats not so bad.

[Baltovibe]

Alcohol freezes?I remember my dad telling me they used to use alcohol as antifreeze in the car's radiator when he was a kid. Never told me the cold effects, but once mentioned he got a surprise when he lit a match to check the level of the antifreeze!

[ragingfish]

Nah, it was white...zinfandel to be precise...but it still smells, and will still be a pain to clean up.

[kostby]

Alcohol concentration of wine is pretty low, only 5 to 10% by volume (10 to 20 'proof'), so yeah, it would freeze pretty quickly, as ragingfish discovered.Of course there are those urban legends about people in the frozen northlands discovering and downing an unfrozen bottle of extremely cold spirits such as vodka... EDIT: Somewhat off-topic, but here's an interesting thread at snopes.com discussing the topic -->http://www.snopes.com/cgi-bin/...0;p=1LOL Maybe you need a new signit, the way your Vibe sees the G6 after the wine.. -->

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[russ257]

i have had bottles of vodka start to freeze in the freezer and as well as jagermeister. but that was an odd little mini fidge set as cold as it would go.

[ragingfish]

Well, the good news is that, despite what I expected, the wine IS still liquid, even at 19°F...makes cleanup a breeze...Majority of the wine appears to have ended up within the piles of the cargo mat...so that baby went right into the washing machine...as well as various work clothes and the such...thank goodness for commercial-grade washers! Lemme tell you, that washing machine smelled like a bar full of drunks...so potent...There were puddles under the spare too, and a good amount in the under-floor tray, but thankfully, it's all easily cleaned...Very little made it behind the plastic walls of the spare tire bay, and (thankfully!) none made it under the rear bench...But, I still got hours of cleaning ahead of me...Back to work...

[MadBill]

So is the moral of the story: "Stick to hard liquor; it won't mess up your trunk."?

[ragingfish]

Quote, originally posted by MadBill »So is the moral of the story: "Stick to hard liquor; it won't mess up your trunk."?Works for me!

[Herb]

Quote, originally posted by ragingfish »So when I got back in after being in the post office, I said to myself, "DAMN that's rank! Wait a minute...I know that smell...that's not rotten...THAT'S WINE!!!!"Run to the back, and sure enough, lying against the hatch door, was a brown paper bag, stained with wine, and filled with HUNDREDS of shattered pieces of glass.You guessed it. The wine bottle had exploded. Had visions of what would happen if I got pulled over for some reason and the cop smelled it...ugh, that woulda been BAD!So, while it's about 25° tomorrow, I will be shivering outside trying to de-inebriate my interior...So what's your UAC (upholstery alcohol concentration)? Mine's about .8! Is this your version of a drunken vibe?

[ragingfish]

Quote, originally posted by Herb »Is this your version of a drunken vibe? ROFL!Touché my friend!Well, I am pleased to say Emily has successfully completed her detox program. Took about 5-6 hours, but was worth it. Ran the cargo mat and nets through the washing machine. Pulled out the tray, hand washed that. Had to was the jack, the tire iron, and the jack handle...only casualty was a road atlas. It was soaked...and smelly...so I chucked it (not that I ever used it anyway!) Pulled out the spare. Hand washed the entire inner body under the spare. Removed both lower quarter panels to get behind them. Removed the long storage bin behind the spare, cleaned under that. Lifted the rear bench, cleaned the floor under there...and even had to clean inside the crossbeam that runs under the long storage bin...BUT...I'm pleased to say I think I got it all...It was too cold to take a good whiff, but I'm pretty sure come my drive to work tomorrow, the stench that was Sutter Home White Zinfandel shall be no more!

[ColonelPanic]

Glad you were able to get that mess cleaned up! Doesn't sound like it was too pleasant of an experience to clean up.I tell ya, if I ever drank anymore, I wouldn't have such classy stuff back there exploding. It would probably be a bottle of Boone's Farm, MD 20/20 or something, complete with paper sack.