This topic may have already been discussed, but in the event it hasn’t… in the most recent edition of WS James Laube divulged that he freezes wine if he doesn’t finish a bottle the first sitting. To thaw the bottle he’ll put it in the microwave for 10-15 seconds or just leave it out on the counter for several hours. I’ve honestly never heard of such a preservation method.
Has anyone here used freezing as a preservation method and if so what were your results?
I have 2 quart containers (1 red, 1 white) in my freezer that I dump unfinished wine into for use in cooking. I find previously frozen wine a bit different, but its fine for cooking.
It works well in my limited experience. Suppose you have half a bottle the night before you leave town or something.
The only thing I’m not sure of is that reds sometimes have more particulates settle out afterwards.
And remember the wine will expand once frozen.
Your second sentence was the example James used in his article. He also mentioned freezing will sometimes increase particulates. In that case he just decants the wine. He also warned about expansion.
I wonder if there is any scientific studies to show whether or not freezing alters the structure in such a way to modify flavor or aroma.
I highly doubt there are. There aren’t studies for most wine topics of more significance than this (eg “travel shock”).
People should experiment with it. I think most people who have tried it have found that it works very well.
Our wine group did an exercise with a young robust red wine sealed under screwcap. I have copied some txt from the original post by my friend Dave below… I know he won’t mind.
The taste difference was very subtle indeed, only the heat affected one was a touch duller on the palate. Certainly the difference between the frozen vs control wine was tiny, if anything at all. We were all very surprised.
Original report is here… https://wineimport.discoursehosting.net/t/the-blending-sessions/131688/1
Torture Test
As an added interest I decided to do my Wine Torture Taste off as well, which consisted of one control wine and 4 others which I’d done various things to. These wines were bought all together direct from McWilliams and cellared since. Being Mt Pleasant Rosehill Shiraz they are decent wines to start off with.One bottle has been on a Western facing window sill for 14 months (including 2 Aussie Summers)
One bottle frozen overnight and defrosted prior.
One bottle hyper-decanted in my 20,000rpm blender onsite.
One bottle subjected to travel bottle shock in the Travelshock-alator™ for 16 hours.
One bottle is the control.Results
For me this was very eye opening, I thought without a doubt that the Heat Affected one would be nothing but port or a stewed mess. The fact of the matter was, no-one could say with any real confidence which one it was. They knew the control one so they could compare to it. Even knowing which one it was, I could see it was a bit flatter on the palate but that was all. (and I reckon had I not known the order I would not have picked it). It just doesn’t seem conceivable that a wine could be subjected to 45C+ days for 3-4 days/weeks at a time (probably hotter being in between the venetian blinds and window) and not suffer any real ill-effects after 14 months. It sort of made me re-think that when the courier guy leaves it on the doorstep for a few hours in the sun, or it being delivered during a hot spell may not stress me out as much now. (admittedly whites would probably be a whole different story). Obviously if done over 10 years you’d expect more difference, although that is quite extreme storage conditions. These bottles were under screwcap for what it is worth. They are age-worthy wines with 10-20 years well within their drinking window. (I think they retail for about $50 a bottle nowadays)Funnily enough most people preferred the one that had been frozen. (I’d frozen it solid the night before, I did unscrew the cap to-loose as I didn’t want it exploding)> . The one in the blender was seen as the worse (most thought that it was the heat affected one) all I did was pour it in the plastic cup and blended for about 15 secs at 20,000rpm and then back in the bottle. The Travelator (Travel Shock) one no-one could see any real discernible difference in it, and makes me think the whole idea is a bit meh. (thanks to Tez my dad for knocking it up for me, out of some old wood and bbq rotisserie motor, intentional clunking motion and all)
We freeze unfinished bottles that we want to save. Interestingly, our experience is that we notice particulates with the white wines, not the red, but they are so much easier to see in a glass of white.
I’ve frozen wine several times and have always felt it the wine was similiar in taste/aromatics to the first night. The wines I end up freezing are usually solid mid-priced wines (i.e. $20-$40 range - variety of styles) as the higher end wines we drink never make it to the next night.
Folks have been doing this for years - was recommended by ‘experts’ a long time ago as the best way to preserve an opened bottle over time.
As others have said, it’s not clear that it is the ‘best’ - and it will cause precipitation, even in red wines. And one would think this would change the wine’s chemistry and possibly ‘texture’ as well 
Cheers!
i freeze occasionally
If I freeze a full 375ml bottle, to what ullage level do I stop filling to take care of the fluid expansion?
Didn’t Parker used to say on his board that he froze wine? What got me started doing it.
Yes, I first recall Parker recommending it about 20 years ago. Ron Kramer was a big proponent as well IIRC. I’ve tried it a few times with decent results, though the acidity seemed to suffer a bit, but I’ve never had the freezer space to store many bottles.
I don’t think frozen grapes that are (now) thawed taste the same as fresh ones.
This might be a tolerable technique, but this seems to me situations where half bottles or preservation systems are worth using. (I just keep a couple cases of splits around for the times when we will not finish a bottle, like the night before going on a trip or something)
I think this was Richard M. Gold’s idea before even RMP. He goes into it in depth in his How to Build a Wine Cellar edition 1.
A good rule of thumb would be to allow for about 10% expansion. You can estimate where to fill to by first filling the bottle, pouring it out into a container, then pour about 90% of that back into the bottle. Mark that level, and you should be good. Note that if you push a cork in firmly, the pressure build up as the wine expands during freezing might pop the cork out.
I’ve done it (actually last night - as I had some sample bottles open of some really good wines I didn’t want to waste). I think you might lose a touch of acidity and maybe a little bit of aromatics, and definitely you will get some crystals, but on the whole it works pretty well.