Freezing White Burgs

WINE TALK
1

The last two “quality” bottles I opened did not perform as expected and I think it might be because I had them chilling in my cold refrigerator to long . First bottle was an '08 Puligny ‘Trezin’ Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey and it felt a little dead (muted nose,short finish) compared to multiple other bottles of the same. The last was '05 Chablis Butteaux Raveneau and it had that similar deadness. At first I thought corked, but the nose isn’t musty or ‘off’, just non-existent and everything feels very muted.

I keep my fridge pretty cold (35-40 F) and had both bottles in there for at least two weeks, longer than usual. I gave them both plenty of time to warm and open up before serving and even decanted the Raveneau. I am beginning to think that that temperature for over a weak shocks and severely damages the wine. Both bottles were stored together and had the same damaged signs. Coincidence?

2

I don’t think the cold temps matter.
alan

3

[cheers.gif]

4

I agree. BTW Stu - did you serve them at those temps? If so, that’s what accounted for the muted nose and lack of character. Gotta warm those babies up a little bit!

5

I waited a solid hour and then keep playing with them over the next few hours to see if it got better with warmth and time. No luck. They could have just been ‘dumb’ bottles. It happens. But I was pretty disappointed in the Raveneau to say the least.

6

Well, you’ve had other bottles of the same wine, so you probably know best. That said, I have never had an issue with cold temps and wines. Particularly relatively short term cold (I think 2 weeks qualifies) and a non-freezing situation.