diff --git a/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/variantcontext/writer/VCFWriter.java b/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/variantcontext/writer/VCFWriter.java
index f5306b6da..f2d34fe85 100755
--- a/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/variantcontext/writer/VCFWriter.java
+++ b/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/utils/variantcontext/writer/VCFWriter.java
@@ -250,7 +250,7 @@ class VCFWriter extends IndexingVariantContextWriter {
             mWriter.write("\n");
             mWriter.flush();  // necessary so that writing to an output stream will work
         } catch (IOException e) {
-            throw new RuntimeException("Unable to write the VCF object to " + getStreamName());
+            throw new RuntimeException("Unable to write the VCF object to " + getStreamName(), e);
         }
     }