"Midlife" > wrote in message
...
> Yup, that's the subject of a series of posts on a very good "foodie' board
> I
> frequent in the USA. So I thought I'd see what kind of reaction the idea
> gets here.
>
> The posters agreed that leftover wine can be frozen (ice-cube trays
> suggested) and defrosted later for use, primarily in COOKING. But there
> were a few people who said that they've done the same thing for drinking
> purposes and the wine tasted no worse than if it had been stored in the
> fridge for a few days.
>
> If you can get past the very idea of this concept..... what do you think
> of
> it?? I guess the question is what happens to wine when it is frozen??
> I've
> always been told to avoid extreme temperature fluctuations. Is cold any
> better or worse than extreme heat?

Cold is much kinder to wine than heat. Prior to bottling, white wines are
normally brought to ~26°F and held there for a couple of weeks to encourage
the precipitation of the excess potassium bitartrate. This renders the wine
"cold stable" so that it won't throw a deposit in bottle later in the
refrigerator. This process doesn't have any negative long term impact on
the wine.

As for freezing wine as you described, it's OK for short term "suspended
animation", but if left in such a state (ice cube trays in the freezer) the
wine will lose both water and alcohol and therefore change appreciably in
flavor. It will probably change somewhat from oxidative effects too
(although more slowly than it would at room temperature), but at least it
won't go bad from bacterial spoilage!

Tom S