Can a wine 'grow'

I had approx 1" of head space in a 5 gal glass carboy of Elderberry wine. It was born 7/28/10 and has been racked 2ce in secondarys.
OG was 1.098 at the last rack my SG was .099..

here is the wierd thing.. the wine grew...

I no longer have any head space and my airlock has purple wine tinge color in it. Luckily it is vodka.

This is in a finished basement storage area and temps have been cool - 60-65 F maybe?

The funny thing is in the same storage area I have 5 gal of Cherry in a glass carboy, 2 5 gal better boy Apfelwein (s), 3.5 gal mead. and a bunch of 1 gal wines of different types. NONE of the other wines have responded that way.

Any Ideas? Maybe I will rack again and prepare for bottling.. it is over 6 months old now.


Second question - Apfelwein born 11/15/10 over 3 months old.. darn thing is still bubbling... course it is in the basement cool temps like the rest of the wine. Any body else ever experience a 3 month ferment on apfelwein?

happy brewing!
N2

Yes wine can grow, but it usually takes a temp change.

My carboys all are a little different in size no matter what they claim they hold. I have learned which are big and start with them and when racking I go to smaller ones

Sounds suspiciously like someone is giving you a hand - maybe taking an occasional sample and adding more liquid...

Any chance the air lock bung is a bit loose - and shoved down into the wine?

When you racked off and topped up - how much headspace did you leave? A good 1-2" in the neck of the carboy... or did you leave it 1/8" from the bung?

The only other thing I can think of is the CO2 coming up out of solution - causing it to bubble up and into your airlock.... but I really believe the answer lies in the other ideas...

Thanks