19/06/2024
7 Golden Rules of Wine Storage:
1. Temperature
To make a long story short: Wine, regardless of type, should ideally be stored at 8 to 15°C, no warmer. If the wine becomes warmer, the delicacy is lost very quickly, the wine loses its elegance, finesse and fruitiness and is simply no longer good. This process is permanent, i.e. it cannot be reversed by re-chilling.
Colder is not a problem as long as it does not get so cold that ice forms. This is the case from around -5 °C, or from -7 °C if the alcohol content is higher. If ice forms, the ice needs about 9% more volume than the wine - with the result that the wine ice pushes the cork or screw cap away and the bottle becomes leaky. If the ice thaws again, the bottle is open and can no longer be stored. Once wine has frozen, it is best to drink it immediately after thawing - it is still good then, but will not improve.
Of all the criteria that need to be considered when storing wine, temperature is the most important - but why is that? The reason is the temperature-dependent reaction kinetics: if it gets warmer, the ingredients react more intensively with each other, if it gets colder, the reactions slow down. Based on 10 °C and a shelf life of 12 months, it can be simplified to say that the reaction rate of the ingredients with each other doubles and up to quadruples with every 10 °C increase - and the shelf life is halved or reduced to ¼. At 20 °C, the reaction rate is therefore twice as high as at 10 °C, the shelf life is only 6 months, at 30 °C it is at least four times as high, the shelf life is only 3 months, at 40 °C it is already ten times as high or higher, the shelf life is only less than 1 month. In addition, as the temperature rises, reactions take place that do not occur at lower temperatures. Therefore, at temperatures above 20 °C, the tasty aromatic substances in the wine are lost very quickly and, unfortunately, irretrievably.
But beware: wine storage temperature is not wine drinking temperature. Interested in more background: Read here:
https://www.winerack-plus.com/wine-storage-guide
Therefore: Store your wines in a cool place, below 15°C, so that you can enjoy them for as long as possible. This can be in the fridge, in a wine cabinet or in a special wine store with a controlled temperature.
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