Negative effects of refrigerating Champagne, other wines?

[DJ_Silverberg]

@Blake Brown

Ive seen tartrate crystals form in the bottom of white Burgs and chards under refrigeration when not evident beforehand and am not sure if this is to the detriment of the wine or not. Im paying attention to wines that I`m familiar with that have not been stored in the frig and have not yet noticed a difference. Any thoughts?

Blake,

It sounds like the white Burgs and chards that you are talking about were not cold stabilized.

[DJ_Silverberg]

@Scott Gruner

I am more concerned about whether you can safely take them back out and put them in the cellar… I assume it is fine and have done it with no consquence- it isn’t like I am taking them back to room temp… but with the experiences with beers- seems there is detriment to bringing them out of the fridge, I was curious if that was ever an issue…

Scott - the issue is not necessarily the temperature change but the rate at which it changes.

[DJ_Silverberg]

@Randy Sloan

@Blake Brown

Randy- I store the bottles on their side in the frig order to avoid the corks drying out.

That takes care of the part of the cork directly in contact with wine but the lower relative humidity of a refrigerator vs a proper wine cellar or passive basement will dry the cork and make it brittle and potentially cause leakage.

Not an issue for the time frames I believe we are talking about though.

As Brad noted, Champagne is pressurized creating its humidity adjacent to the cork. You could leave it standing up (if your fridge has enough headroom) without a significant issue

[Robert.Fleming]

@Brad Baker

The CO2 in Champagne will keep the environment moist enough such that the cork will not dry out. Numerous studies on this have been done …

Brad, can you point me to any of those studies? I don’t understand how CO2 helps protect corks from drying, and I’d like to learn more. TIA.

[Brad_Baker]

Robert,

The CIVC did a few large studies in the 1990s. They were studying all sorts of things and how it affected the wine: heat, light, corks, storage on side vs. standing up, etc… I don’t have copies in my hand, but if I can find a link to one I will post it (the CIVC should also be able to supply the study). From what I can recall from seeing the studies and talking to some of the folks who carried out the work, the environment in a bottle of sparkling wine is quite humid due to the pressure in the bottle and CO2 that rests between the wine and the cork (maybe I should have been more clear as it isn’t just the CO2, it is the pressure combined with the CO2 in a closed environment). This humidity is enough to keep the cork from “drying out” (relatively speaking) even when standing up and in fairly dry environments. I also recall statements to the effect that a Champagne cork is so large when it starts out and is compressed so much when it goes into a bottle that there really isn’t much more shrinking that the cork is going to be capable of.

[Harry_C]

I recall at a tasting of Grand Dame VC with M. Guiliano and she made a comment of not storing Champagne in the Refrig. When questioned, she felt that the wine could get off odors from other foods in the refrig.

[Blake_Brown]

@Harry C.

I recall at a tasting of Grand Dame VC with M. Guiliano and she made a comment of not storing Champagne in the Refrig. When questioned, she felt that the wine could get off odors from other foods in the refrig.

This is an interesting consideration as I have heard it before, but sort of wrote it off as a non issue. Brads response re the CO2 and pressure aspect would suggest no aromas can penetrate into the bottle. We could get into a discussion about the corks ability to wall off outside odors or not. Since I posted this thread and have been paying attention to wines I`m familiar with, I have not detected any refrigerators odor effects nor any cold, short term influences on Champagnes tasted in the past week. They have been consistently the same as when I do an ice water chill.

[Brad_Baker]

I’ve never had an issue with odors getting into bottles in the fridge - unopened or opened, but then again they aren’t staying opened for very long and it is more of an issue with still wines than Champagne (for the reasons Blake mentioned). What I could see happening is that some very odorous aromas latching on to a label or just being in the general area so that when you open the fridge, it hits you. While neither actually affects the wine, it can throw your nose off as you pick up aromas that aren’t from the wine. I personally don’t worry about this, but anyone tasting wine near something that is very fragrant knows it can be difficult.

Bottom line - I wouldn’t worry about wine in the fridge, but keep the stinky stuff away!

[Bruce_Rudman]

On a slightly different slant, I have a 55 bottle wine chiller in my dining room used for storing whites and desert wines. I keep it at serving temperature, which is around 50 degrees. Will that harm my good RRV Chards? I don’t drink White Burgs and it doesn’t hold Champagne…