diff --git a/.classpath b/.classpath
index d6a3d16..4ae4e1d 100644
--- a/.classpath
+++ b/.classpath
@@ -6,5 +6,8 @@
 	<classpathentry kind="lib" path="lib/default/hadoop-core.jar"/>
 	<classpathentry kind="lib" path="lib/default/hive-exec.jar"/>
 	<classpathentry kind="lib" path="lib/default/opencsv.jar"/>
+	<classpathentry kind="lib" path="lib/test/junit.jar"/>
+	<classpathentry kind="lib" path="lib/buildtime/log4j.jar"/>
+	<classpathentry kind="lib" path="lib/test/commons-logging.jar"/>
 	<classpathentry kind="output" path="target/classes"/>
 </classpath>
diff --git a/ivy.xml b/ivy.xml
index f252abb..87c7aeb 100644
--- a/ivy.xml
+++ b/ivy.xml
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@
     <dependency org="cobertura" name="cobertura" rev="1.9.4.1" conf="buildtime->default"/>
 
     <!-- test time only dependencies -->
+    <dependency org="apache" name="commons-logging" rev="1.1.1" conf="test->default" />    
     <dependency org="junit" name="junit" rev="4.8.2" conf="test->default"/>
   </dependencies>
 </ivy-module>
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/bizo/hive/serde/csv/CSVSerde.java b/src/main/java/com/bizo/hive/serde/csv/CSVSerde.java
index 2be9260..3ed1516 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/bizo/hive/serde/csv/CSVSerde.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/bizo/hive/serde/csv/CSVSerde.java
@@ -35,9 +35,9 @@ import au.com.bytecode.opencsv.CSVWriter;
 public final class CSVSerde implements SerDe {
   
   private ObjectInspector inspector;
-  String[] outputFields;
-  int numCols;
-  List<String> row;
+  private String[] outputFields;
+  private int numCols;
+  private List<String> row;
   
   @Override
   public void initialize(final Configuration conf, final Properties tbl) throws SerDeException {
@@ -102,8 +102,9 @@ public final class CSVSerde implements SerDe {
   public Object deserialize(final Writable blob) throws SerDeException {
     Text rowText = (Text) blob;
     
+    CSVReader csv = null;
     try {
-      final CSVReader csv = new CSVReader(new CharArrayReader(rowText.toString().toCharArray()));
+      csv = new CSVReader(new CharArrayReader(rowText.toString().toCharArray()));
       final String[] read = csv.readNext();
       
       for (int i=0; i< numCols; i++) {
@@ -117,6 +118,14 @@ public final class CSVSerde implements SerDe {
       return row;
     } catch (final Exception e) {
       throw new SerDeException(e);
+    } finally {
+      if (csv != null) {
+        try {
+          csv.close();
+        } catch (final Exception e) {
+          // ignore
+        }
+      }
     }
   }
 
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/bizo/hive/serde/csv/CSVSerdeTest.java b/src/test/java/com/bizo/hive/serde/csv/CSVSerdeTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e7bc53a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/java/com/bizo/hive/serde/csv/CSVSerdeTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+package com.bizo.hive.serde.csv;
+
+import java.util.List;
+import java.util.Properties;
+
+import org.apache.hadoop.hive.serde.Constants;
+import org.apache.hadoop.io.Text;
+import org.junit.Before;
+import org.junit.Test;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
+
+
+public final class CSVSerdeTest {
+  private final CSVSerde csv = new CSVSerde();
+  
+  @Before
+  public void setup() throws Exception {
+    final Properties props = new Properties();
+    props.put(Constants.LIST_COLUMNS, "a,b,c");
+    props.put(Constants.LIST_COLUMN_TYPES, "string,string,string");
+    
+    csv.initialize(null, props);
+  }
+  
+  @Test
+  public void testDeserialize() throws Exception {
+    final Text in = new Text("hello,\"yes, okay\",1");
+    
+    final List<String> row = (List<String>) csv.deserialize(in);
+    
+    assertEquals("hello", row.get(0));
+    assertEquals("yes, okay", row.get(1));
+    assertEquals("1", row.get(2));
+  }
+}