I have a mead that’s been maturing for about 4 months now, and as it’s my first, I am wanting to sample some to know how it’s coming along. My question is this: Can I open a bottle, pull a small sample out, and re-cork the bottle without adversely affecting the mead? Or will opening it stop the conditioning process and ultimately ruin the bottle? I can always drink the opened bottle, so it’s not wasted…
drink the bottle. you MIGHT be able to take a sample and recork but there is high likelyhood of infection or oxidation. There are (or used to be) people who were paid alot of money to recork old bottles of wine but they weren’t sampling, just replacing old degraded cork with new.
EDIT also don’t be to critical as 4 months isn’t a super long time for a mead to condition.