Any comments on microwaving red wine? I recently read an article which
stated that the best way to store an open bottle of red wine was in the
refrigerator, then briefly nuke it to room temp. The author claimed that
there was way less oxidation and that the flavors remained true for up to 2
weeks when compared to storing at room temp. Seems unthinkable!

"Trevor Morris" > wrote:

> Any comments on microwaving red wine? I recently read an article
> which stated that the best way to store an open bottle of red
> wine was in the refrigerator, then briefly nuke it to room temp.
> The author claimed that there was way less oxidation and that
> the flavors remained true for up to 2 weeks when compared to
> storing at room temp. Seems unthinkable!

Why? Storing an opened bottle in the fridge is by long and large
the best way of preserving wine for a couple of days. (I am
definitely not a fan of vacuvin-pumps nor a techie freak that uses
nitrogen preservers).

If you let it come to room temperature for two hours or give it 20
seconds in the microwave, I can't see no big difference.

M.

I usually store my wine under very high purity nitrogen in a machine in
the same room where I keep the wine. A glass of a full white wine is at
about the right temperature to serve. A red wine, especially a younger,
tannic wine often needs to be warmed a bit for my taste. Thus I often
place the wine in the microwave in a measuring glass into which I draw
the wine. It only requires 5 or 6 seconds to bring the red up to
temperature for 4 oz of wine. By measuring the wine, I can get
consistent results. I then pour the wine into into a wine glass at once.
For whites that need to be chilled a bit more, I draw the wine directly
into a wine glass. I have some silver plated bulbs, with long handles,
that contain a liquid. These are kept frozen in the freezer. One only
has to move the bulb in the wine a short time to lower the temperature a
bit.

Of course if you take the wine from a refrigerator that is set near the
freezing point of water and want to warm it all at once, a considerably
longer microwave time will be required. This can be a bit tricky to
estimate unless you always warm the same amount of wine. It is very easy
to over heat the wine. If you always measure out a fixed amount of the
cold wine into a large Pyrex measuring cup, or something of the sort,
then you can soon find just how much time is required for the conditions
you use. Microwaves are rapidly absorbed by water,which is the main
ingredient of wine. This means the wine near the exterior of the
container is heated more than that near the center. Thus it might pay to
use a defrost cycle and stir the wine a time or two if you are going to
warm a large amount of wine from near freezing to serving temperature
for a red. The wine may need to be decanted before warming, if it
contains sediment. The convection currents set up by the uneven heating
in the wine could stir up a very fine sediment a bit.

I often wish that top wine would be sold in tiny bottles, with an easily
removable cap, that hold just one glass of wine - provided the wine
could age as well as in larger bottles. It would then be very simple to
serve multiple wines for one or two people without having opened wine to
store. Of course, we have this now with some glasses large enought to
hold a half or whole bottle of wine, but not all of us are a Falstaff
who can, or want to, drink a few bottles of wine with a meal. :-)

No matter how you store opened wine, it is best to store it as soon as
possible after opening the bottle, with as little contact with air as
possible, with the possible exception of some very young wines loaded
with tannin. If you pour wine from a bottle throughout a meal, and only
store the wine after the guests are gone, the method you use to store it
may be somewhat moot. A lower temperature will help, but the oxygen
absorbed on the long air exposure will still react with the wine in the
refrigerator, but at a lower rate than at room temperature.



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"Trevor Morris" > wrote in message
news:2rjKb.17875$7D3.14147@fed1read02...
> Any comments on microwaving red wine? I recently read an article which
> stated that the best way to store an open bottle of red wine was in the
> refrigerator, then briefly nuke it to room temp. The author claimed that
> there was way less oxidation and that the flavors remained true for up to
2
> weeks when compared to storing at room temp. Seems unthinkable!
>
I must admit, I put a bottle of red in the fridge just to keep it a day or
two. When I pulled it for dinner, it was quite cold. Popped in in the micro
(and my wife freaked out) it was perfect. So I think the oven is a good
thing.

Rich