Do cold temperatures damage wine so long as it doesn't freeze?

[david_li]

@David M. Bueker

@david li

@David M. Bueker

I have only done the freezer thing a few times, but never had any issues over several months.

Were these artisanal wines or more mass-produced?

I can’t recall specific wines. They were some young mid priced cali cabs and many some Aussie reds.

Did you see pigments precipitation after thawing the wine? The freezer thing only worked for me for couple cali chards. I tried it on cabs and it was ruined.

I have only ever seen tartrate crystals. Never seen pigments precipitating. I honestly have to wonder if those wines had seen some additives that then precipitated out.

David

That could be the case. It only happened to me once. So it is a very small sampling pool.

[AKuehn]

@David M. Bueker

Adam-if you say change a great wine to a mediocre one that is pretty much ruining it.

Suffice it to say that I don’t do this with sweet wines I care about.

@David M. Bueker

Are you leaving bottles in the fridge for weeks? A few days is no issue at all. I cannot count the thousands of bottles where I have experienced this. Your experience makes absolutely zero sense to me. That’s all.

A few days. Note that I have not had precipitation generally with dry table whites, and I refrigerate those with some regularity. However, this has happened fairly consistently with Sauternes, although even with Sauternes, I do not get precipitation with every bottle. But it does happen more often than not, which has been enough to make me stop storing Sauternes and other sweet whites in this way.

Also I should note that I don’t taste any adverse effects unless I get precipitates.

[harry_spithoven]

Many times a opened bottle of sauternes has benefit in the fridge

Hendrik

[david_li]

@harry spithoven

Many times a opened bottle of sauternes has benefit in the fridge

Hendrik

This is another common way of preserving an opened bottle that I do not fully understand. The rate of oxidation is lower at lower temperature, but the solubility of oxygen is higher. Wine will absorb more oxygen when stored in a fridge. Is the lower rate of oxidation enough to compensate the high oxygen concentration?
What is the idea temperature?

[Pat_Martin]

@Doug Schulman

@david li

@J a y H a c k

Didn’t someone (RMP?) suggest about a decade ago that the best way to preserve the unused portion of a half bottle was to pour it into a nonreactive surgical bag, squeeze out all the air, and throw it in the freezer?

Yes…I was stupid enough to try it myself. There was a lot of precipitation after I thaw the wine. And it tasted very light and nothing like the one before freezing.

I’ve known several people to preserve wine by freezing it, and none have ever reported any adverse effects.

I’ve frozen left over wines for years. It preserves red wine very well, especially younger wines. It doesn’t work as well for older, delicate wines, but that could be oxidation during the thawing process as much as the actual freezing. I do agree freezing doesn’t work as well for dry whites.

[Ramon_C]

We’re getting too scientific here. What the hell is a surgical bag?

This?

Or, this?

[Jim_Stevens]

I had a case of wine shipped ground last week from the east coast to Missouri (KC area), took three full days, the highs were in the single digits. It was in styrofoam, and it wasn’t even real cold, not as cold as the refrigerator anyway. I would guess it was upper 30’s to 40 degrees. Haven’t opened any yet.

I also tried to stop it from shipping, but too late!

[Alan_Rath]

@Neal.Mollen

Well, my Arneis arrived from their cross-country trip from K&L, and 2 of the six bottles have pushed corks.

Not surprisingly, I had a shipment of 3 bottles arrive here in the Bay Area from a NY store on Monday, all with slightly pushed corks as well (but no seepage). I just hammered them back in, don’t expect any problems.

[Alan_Rath]

@david li

This is another common way of preserving an opened bottle that I do not fully understand. The rate of oxidation is lower at lower temperature, but the solubility of oxygen is higher. Wine will absorb more oxygen when stored in a fridge. Is the lower rate of oxidation enough to compensate the high oxygen concentration?

Once the bottle is stoppered, no more O2 can get in, so the increased solubility when you put the bottle in the fridge isn’t really a factor. My own completely unsubstantiated, handwaving belief is that yes, the slower reaction rates at lower temperature are a much bigger positive factor than higher oxygen solubility.

[Dan_Rosenheck]

Bottle just arrived today. Cork is depressed but not exceedingly so. Capsule spins with little effort. Zero signs of seepage. I imagine I should be good to go?

[Stewart_Johnson]

I shipped some of my wine to myself from CA to NY via UPS ground last week and it arrived yesterday. Popped one today, and it was showing as well as it ever has. This is the third year I’ve shipped to NY in January for Pinot Days and the wine has come through unscathed each time. I’m more circumspect with customers’ wine, but, for myself, I don’t worry much about the cold anymore.