Freezing wine ?

"What isn't clear to me is just why anyone would WANT to freeze wine."

Neat rant, Bill.

You've made me see the light.

I'm moving to boxed wines immediately -- that way I'll be able to open the tap, and get just the appropriate amount of wine every single time.

Thanks so much.

Regards, Bob

"What isn't clear to me is just why anyone would WANT to freeze wine."

Neat rant, Bill.

You've made me see the light.

I'm moving to boxed wines immediately -- that way I'll be able to open the tap, and get just the appropriate amount of wine every single time.

Thanks so much.

Regards, Bob

You jest, but the principal behind bag-in-the-box is quite sound - remove wine and no air gets in. Can't see it catching on for premium wines, though.

Some people keep half bottles to put 'extra' wine in and then recork and I had one friend that just had clear glass marbles and filled the bottle until there was almost no air space above the wine.

I must admit to enjoying screwcaps - not because we don't generally finish a bottle, but because once in awhile we like a single glass of pre-prandial white and can then screw it back on. The quality of wine is usually such that I don't worry overly much about the air in the bottle affecting the wine.

I've used the half bottle, as well, Bill. The freezer is quicker and easier, especially if I'm only planning on keeping it for a week or two.

The half bottle works very well for longer periods of time. I fill the half bottle just after opening the big bottle to make it as full as possible with as little air in the half bottle as possible.

[I loved your rant though. ]

To my way of thinking, shooting more game that you are prepared to eat is right up there with opening more wine than you are capable of drinking - if you can't finish it, don't start it!

Damn, you beat me to the punch, so to speak. If you can't drink a bottle of wine, don't open the damn thing!

Oh, you can both stick your heads where the sun doesn't shine.

Actually, I look upon the glass of wine a night as medicine. I'm not drinking it because I want to, I'm drinking it purely for health reasons. About once a fortnight I'll open a bottle for pleasure, usually with guests and dinner, but that's about it these days.

Day 2's defrosted offering was very pleasant yet again...

I have to agree--indeed, why open wine with the intent to freeze some of it? I am doing it this week as an experiment, but it pained me to pour those three separate jars of wine and then stick them into the freezer.

By this time next week, I shall have a full report. I want them frozen for at least a week, to give the acids and such time to gather and drop out.

I tasted the wine before it went into the freezer and jotted my notes. I will defrost three different ways and then taste, comparing each defrosted wine against a fresh bottle, all against my notes of the wine before it was frozen.

It will be done BLIND. I fully do not trust tasting notes of experiments done any other way. In this case, I am not a believer and so I likely would be leaning toward not wanting the experiment to work. Blind tasting makes it more difficult for me to do that.

I am interested to hear how the experiment goes Thomas.

I wanted to add that I would love to be able to open a bottle a wine with the intention of finishing it all...but unfortunately, that is pretty difficult unless I am able to lie in the whole next day to nurse a hangover...LOL! (I am barely 5 foot and weigh 100lbs, so 2 glasses are my limit!) I admit that I wouldn't open something nice unless my husband or someone else was with me to finish the bottle. I try and buy half bottles or cheapy stuff during the week, but even the cheapy stuff tastes pretty awful after 3 days in the fridge (not that it was fabulous on the the first night). So if the freezer method works, I think it would be a great solution for me.

Freezing works, and to exclude air, you can use a vacuum pump or even pour the wine into water bottles and squish them until there's no air in them. Air is the enemy.

BTW, my wife is also your height. You two have something in common: you're both the same height as Dolly Parton.

Freezing works, and to exclude air, you can use a vacuum pump or even pour the wine into water bottles and squish them until there's no air in them. Air is the enemy.

BTW, my wife is also your height. You two have something in common: you're both the same height as Dolly Parton.

Larry, I'll find out if I think freezing works, but I already know from personal experience as a wine salesman that the vacuum pump is as useful as putting the cork back in.

BTW, my wife is also your height. You two have something in common: you're both the same height as Dolly Parton.

Did not know that...well, there is something that I DON'T have in common with Dolly Parton...






I am not a blond....Stuart and Jenise get your minds out of the gutter! LOL!

Larry, I am joining in here in this thread (again) to say that freezing wine works! no ands or ifs about it, it works. I didn't say that the wine is not changed, it is. It is a bit softer after freezing, but it is not greatly changed. I have done this many dozens of times and always it has been successful, even up to the point of 6 months frozen. As to the pump, I also do not think it does much good, EXCEPT that a pumped bottle does not leak when it is laid down in the freezing compartment, (or anywhere else) and an unpumped bottle (to my experience) will. When I put a bottle in the freezer laying down, I do try to keep the neck end of the bottle propped up JIC it should leak. That said, a doubting Thomas should certainly run an experiment, and report the finding. I am a bit concerned though that one who admits skepticism of a process is likely to not be satisfied with the results of the process regardless.

Larry, I am joining in here in this thread (again) to say that freezing wine works! no ands or ifs about it, it works. I didn't say that the wine is not changed, it is. It is a bit softer after freezing, but it is not greatly changed. I have done this many dozens of times and always it has been successful, even up to the point of 6 months frozen. As to the pump, I also do not think it does much good, EXCEPT that a pumped bottle does not leak when it is laid down in the freezing compartment, (or anywhere else) and an unpumped bottle (to my experience) will. When I put a bottle in the freezer laying down, I do try to keep the neck end of the bottle propped up JIC it should leak. That said, a doubting Thomas should certainly run an experiment, and report the finding. I am a bit concerned though that one who admits skepticism of a process is likely to not be satisfied with the results of the process regardless.

Bob,

That's why I am doing it blind. Don't you believe me?

You said the magic word: soft. I don't know what soft means when connected to wine other than lower in acidity (or higher in sugar). But if people claim that freezing softens wine and makes it "better" then that can only mean that the wine either was unbalanced in its natural state or some other explanation that escapes me...

You said the magic word: soft. I don't know what soft means when connected to wine other than lower in acidity (or higher in sugar). But if people claim that freezing softens wine and makes it "better" then that can only mean that the wine either was unbalanced in its natural state or some other explanation that escapes me...

Thomas, it was someone else that said it was better, not I. I do say though, that the wine was NOT noticeably worse. By soft, I mean that it was very very minimally lower in acidity...but I would not think it was any lower than a wine that had been cold stabilized, which IIRC is to remove some tartrates, or more correctly to keep the wine from throwing same in the store thereby putting off some customers.

Yes Thomas, I trust you explicitly, but Some would be so convinced that no amount of proof would be enough.

Day 3's defrosted glass is delicious. Maybe it's just what I've been eating today, but it actually tastes a bit sweeter and easier to drink than yesterday's. Ok, I'm sold. This is going to be our routine from now on. Interesting to note that this wine was 12 years old (95 Geyserville), and it has still recovered beautifully from freezing. Also worth mentioning is that I've been defrosting the little containers in the fridge - no microwave. Happy to drink my reds on the colder side anyway...