Frozen Wine: Is it ruined?
by bprescott
I received the message below the other day from a reader. While she certainly has dealt with her problem by now, I thought the question was interesting enough to post. "Help! I had a split of pricy champagne in the back of my fridge and pulled it out the other day to find it was frozen! #$%^! After placing it on a lower shelf it has thawed but is it any good? Or should I pitch it? Any thoughts???"
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What do you think?
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im no expert, but its my understanding that drastic change in the temps will cause the vino to spoil.
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Although it is not good to freeze wine or subject it to large temperture swings, I don't believe the wine would be spoiled. Now, it may not be at it's best, but the only thing you can (and should) do is open it and try it! I doubt very seriously that you will get sick.
I wouldn't drink wine that's been frozen (well, I've tasted it, and it's flat), but
I've always frozen what I can't drink and used it in cooking. If you freeze it in
ice cube trays, it's great to use to deglace a pan, and if you freeze it in
larger containers, it's fine when you need a couple of cups of wine for
a braise.
Freezing still table wine will NOT hurt it. That said, that is as long as the cork does not push out from the temperature change. I don't know about Champagne. My guess is that it whould be just fine too. Of course trying it will let you know for sure. At worst, you should have some nice still wine.
Kosher wine is cooked wine. Jews have been doing that for thousands of years and still drink their wine. I'm trying to thaw out wine right now. I'll report back on how it is.
if you look at it that way you can drink just about any 5$ wine that's out there. Ever try kosher wine? Yuk.
I just did this with a nice bottle of CMS white (from Hedges), not expensive but one of my favorite 15$ whites. I noticed it the day after a party, and transferred it to the fridge to defrost slowly. The taste went flat... and there is considerable white powdery sediment (not typical for this wine).
After some questions to my local wine gods, it has been revealed to me that the crystals are tartaric acic (actually tartrate crystals). Check it:
http://www.thewinedoctor.com/glossary/t.shtml
In my opinion, tartaric acid has a lot to do with acidity/sweetness and mouth-feel, turning it into crystals by freezing makes yucky wine.
You do NOT need to FREEZE wine to get the tartrate crystals to fall out of the solution. Just storing it at fridge temp will cause this to happen. I made 80 bottles of Merlot and all I stored in the fridge do to lack of space and not wanting it in the hot house, led to this action. Many like the softer feel of wine with less acid.
I just had a little disaster... I do not know how long my wine chiller has been in sub-zero temperature. One of my 150 bottles cork is a fifth out. I have just open the bottle to try it.. It is not frozen yet. It is taste fine but cold. Not sure what I should do with my champagne, white and red wine..
this is soething, i really never heard or cared about.. would love to see a thread on this what happens when a wine is accidentally frozen, i would like to include the updates from wines, wine lovers from all over the world.
Donna!
http://www.vivino.com/