If you have a particularly cold cellar or don’t trust your fridge to keep your wine cold enough, then you might be worried about what might be too cold. Rightfully so, as it isn’t too hard to accidentally ruin an expensive bottle by freezing it. But there are freezing techniques for your wine.
What Temperature Should You Store Your Wine On?
Of course, this depends on the alcohol content of your wine. The more alcohol in a wine, the lower the temperature you can store it on. From this, you can already take away the fact that wines can’t be kept in very cold rooms.
But the ideal temperature also depends on what you want to do with the wine. Check out “How to Store Wine After Opening” after this for more tips.
Temperature to Properly Age a Wine
Not many people want to age their wine, as most just prepare it for consumption. But for those who want to do it, this is a crucial piece of information. Experts recommend 13°C or 55°F. Check out this wine fridge we found to keep your wine at these expected temperatures.
Also, you shouldn’t change the temperature around the wine you want to age, it should be constant. If you don’t keep it that way, the aging will either be slowed or stopped completely.
Be sure to also check out “10 Tips How to Age Wine The Right Way” for more helpful info in techniques to aging wine.
Temperature to Keep Ready For Consumption
If your intention is to have a bottle of wine that you can always come back to then this is the part where you should listen and take notes. The recommended temperature for this is 19°C or 66°F for red wine and 11°C or 52°F for white wine.
If you follow this simple rule then you will be able to take a sip anytime without needing to wait. Take a look at this fridge for your cooling wine needs.
What Happens When You Freeze Wine?
This question is very important, as a lot of people don’t think about the consequences of freezing a bottle of wine. So let’s talk about these things.
First of all, you will not be able to drink your wine immediately after getting it out. You either run the bottle under warm water, risking the chance of breaking the bottle, or wait up to 1-2 hours. This can be very frustrating and will likely ruin your mood for wine.
But another thing can happen which is much worse. The bottle can simply break apart, because, as we all learned, when a liquid solidifies it also expands. The same thing happens to wine as well.
This will slowly start building up pressure and will slowly push the cork out. Either that or the bottle starts cracking up before breaking completely.
Not only do you waste an entire bottle of wine like this, but you will also have trouble cleaning out whatever you put the bottle in, the glass shards, and the frozen pieces of wine. You will likely have it up first before you can start cleaning as well.
Oh, and if this ever happens to you, don’t forget to wear rubber gloves. Don’t risk having glass shards cutting up your hands.
Don’t get confused with ice wine which differs from storing wine in the freezer. Find out more about Ice wine in “What is Ice Wine” or “20 Things to Know About Ice Wine“.
When Does Wine Freeze?
Well, once again, this depends on the alcohol content. Since wine usually has between 12 and 15%, we will go with an average of 13.5%.
First of all, ethanol itself (the actual alcohol) freezes at -144°C or -173°F. This temperature is ridiculously low, even humans can’t stand it. But fortunately, this is only the case when we are talking about pure ethanol. And we already know that wine isn’t just that.
But if we take the average alcohol content of 13.5%, then it will likely freeze at around -9°C or 15°F.
But the less the alcohol content, the easier the it is to freeze the drink. That is because sugar and water will raise the freezing temperature. Unfortunately, though, some wines are produced quite badly and can freeze partially. Which means that part of your drink will be a slushy mess and have barely any alcohol in it, while the remaining liquid will be much stronger and bitter. So if you want to play it safe then just simply don’t freeze below 0°C or 32°F.
It has become a common trend to cool our beverages with ice cubes that are made of that given beverage, so we don’t water it down. It makes a lot of sense and can work really well. Not with wine though. If you are freezing your wine, then later warm it up, then you will be very disappointed. It gets mushy and feels more like a slushie than anything else.
But if you still want to go ahead with your plan then do so. Who knows, it might be your lucky day, just make sure you are freezing them in a silicone ice cube maker. If you would rather not take chances then just stick with frozen grapes.
Thank you for reading! Have you ever mixed your wine with ice cubes made from that same wine? Let us know in the comments below! Also, be sure to check out “How to Hold a Wine Glass?“, “What Wine Should I Drink With Steak“, or “How to Drink Wine the Correct Way” for beginner guides to choosing the correct wine for your tastes.
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Bottoms up! We’ll uncork ya later!! ?