Author Topic: Storing wine  (Read 4089 times)

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Online IronDioPriest

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Storing wine
« on: August 02, 2012, 09:15:37 AM »
I am not a wine connoisseur by any stretch. I like a glass now and again, and I've really developed a taste for Gewurztraminer German white wine.

This post is to ask about wine's tolerance for being poorly stored. This winter we had a large number of my wife's employees over for a Christmastime dinner party. I bought about a dozen bottles of various kinds of wine just so we'd be covered, and it turned out there were only a couple wine drinkers in the group, so we had about 8 bottles left over.

I put them in the garage for chilling during the party, and afterward, I moved them off to the side and forgot about them until I came across them yesterday. So they were exposed to the extreme cold for a couple months, and then the extreme heat - talking 90s and 100s.

Is there any point in trying to keep or salvage these bottles of wine? I almost chucked them in the trash this AM, but then I thought maybe I'd ask if anyone knows. It's not expensive wine, but between the 8 bottles I probably have between $100 and $150 into them, so IF they can be saved, I'd rather save them.
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Offline trapeze

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Re: Storing wine
« Reply #1 on: August 02, 2012, 09:50:44 AM »
Send them to me. I'll take a chance on them.

I'm no wine expert. I buy a bottle or two at random when I'm at the liquor store buying beer. The bottles go into a rack in a basement storeroom that stays in the 60's during the summer. The rack keeps the corks wet which is supposed to be important.

Every once in a while I have a glass with mrs. trapeze...she is the wine drinker in the family.

Red with beef and white with everything else.

That's the sum total of my wine knowledge.
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Offline LadyVirginia

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Re: Storing wine
« Reply #2 on: August 02, 2012, 10:54:57 AM »


Red with beef and white with everything else.
That's the sum total of my wine knowledge.

Update.  It's been decided (I don't know by whom, maybe by the writer of the article I read)  that you *can* pair red with food other than beef and white with beef.  This is a relief to those of us that can't even spell Gewurztraminer, Chardonney or whatever without looking it up. (Yes, there have been times I was reduced to pointing to a name on the wine menu at a restaurant.)

Any wine I've had sitting around too long becomes cooking wine.
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Offline Libertas

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Re: Storing wine
« Reply #3 on: August 02, 2012, 11:16:48 AM »
The extreme temperature exposure and sunlight exposure can certainly change the internal chemistry of the wine and skunk it up.  Warm temps are more destructive than cool, it's like cooking the wine, but both will definitely change the flavor, likely to something unpleasant.
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Re: Storing wine
« Reply #4 on: August 02, 2012, 12:00:20 PM »
The extreme temperature exposure and sunlight exposure can certainly change the internal chemistry of the wine and skunk it up.  Warm temps are more destructive than cool, it's like cooking the wine, but both will definitely change the flavor, likely to something unpleasant.

That's what I was afraid of.

So... you and I have been experiencing the same weather. If you had wine in your garage since winter, would you chuck it?
"A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means."

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Re: Storing wine
« Reply #5 on: August 02, 2012, 12:26:05 PM »
Open one and see.  I suggest after the 90-100 degree temps, they're vinegar.
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Re: Storing wine
« Reply #6 on: August 02, 2012, 12:39:26 PM »
Open one and see.  I suggest after the 90-100 degree temps, they're vinegar.

I s'pose that is a sure way to know. I was just wondering if someone might know definitively. If it's bad will I be able to tell by a vinegar smell? I've never smelled spoiled wine before.
"A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means."

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Re: Storing wine
« Reply #7 on: August 02, 2012, 01:14:22 PM »
Open one and see.  I suggest after the 90-100 degree temps, they're vinegar.

I s'pose that is a sure way to know. I was just wondering if someone might know definitively. If it's bad will I be able to tell by a vinegar smell? I've never smelled spoiled wine before.

It will smell acrid.  Taste it (it won't kill ya) and if you can't tell, have the Mrs. do it as she drinks wine more often than you.

You don't have to be a connoisseur to know something tastes horrible, though.
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Offline Libertas

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Re: Storing wine
« Reply #8 on: August 03, 2012, 06:53:47 AM »
What Pan said.  For me though, I have a sensitive palate, I would chuck it if just a little bit skunky, don't like acidic tasting anything, plus its hard on the 'ol belly.  Hasn't happened in a while but I had a bottle of red Rhone wine years ago that I had inadvertently left exposed to sunlight too long.  I remember trying to drink some later, realized immediately something wasn't right and ended up tossing it.  My storage discipline in a cool dark space has been spotless ever since.
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Offline John Florida

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Re: Storing wine
« Reply #9 on: August 04, 2012, 01:30:52 PM »
Open one and see.  I suggest after the 90-100 degree temps, they're vinegar.

I s'pose that is a sure way to know. I was just wondering if someone might know definitively. If it's bad will I be able to tell by a vinegar smell? I've never smelled spoiled wine before.


    Some of those might have survived the heat if they're a little on the seweet isde to start with. If they went south on you you can take the oportunity to start making wine vinegar at home for the rest of your life. I've been making it for the past 25/30 years.
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Re: Storing wine
« Reply #10 on: August 04, 2012, 01:58:13 PM »
IDP, have you come to a verdict?
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Re: Storing wine
« Reply #11 on: August 04, 2012, 02:07:39 PM »
IDP, have you come to a verdict?

No, I haven't cracked any of them yet. I brought them in from the garage though.
 ;D
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Offline EW1(SG)

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Re: Storing wine
« Reply #12 on: August 04, 2012, 09:45:12 PM »
I'm with John~no reason to throw them out if they have started to go to vinegar:  homemade wine vinegar is about as good as it can get.

And Gewurtz' are hard to kill, they are pretty stoutly sweet to start with.  High temperatures can cause a "cork" reaction, where the wine 'goes off' in flavor, even though the normal course is to turn vinegary.  It is (as its name suggests) more likely to happen with a natural cork than a synthetic, and has to do with the seal or lack of it as the bottle responds to heat.  Unlike turning to vinegar, it is not a biological process (like spoiling) but a chemical one that doesn't pose any health risk; just tastes nasty.
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Re: Storing wine
« Reply #13 on: August 04, 2012, 11:10:36 PM »

Aw hell, just drink it.  If it tastes bad cook something.


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Re: Storing wine
« Reply #14 on: August 07, 2012, 06:18:06 PM »
So let's say I crack one open and it IS vinegar.

Is it being suggested that I just save this and use it as vinegar for recipes? Is there a difference between that and other vinegars, and can it serve as the vinegar ingredient in all cases, or only or certain kinds of recipes?
"A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means."

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Re: Storing wine
« Reply #15 on: August 07, 2012, 07:20:29 PM »
So let's say I crack one open and it IS vinegar.

Is it being suggested that I just save this and use it as vinegar for recipes? Is there a difference between that and other vinegars, and can it serve as the vinegar ingredient in all cases, or only or certain kinds of recipes?

I'm not sure 'bout the difference between what is sold as "Red Wine Vinegar" and red wine that's turned vinegary.  Red wine doesn't get a chance to turn around here; if it did, I would make an oil and "vinegar" salad dressing with it, and/or use it in recipes instead of red wine.  We saute mushrooms with "turned" white wine and they are goooood.
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Offline John Florida

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Re: Storing wine
« Reply #16 on: August 08, 2012, 08:52:58 AM »
So let's say I crack one open and it IS vinegar.

Is it being suggested that I just save this and use it as vinegar for recipes? Is there a difference between that and other vinegars, and can it serve as the vinegar ingredient in all cases, or only or certain kinds of recipes?


 It's stronger than the stuff you buy because they cut the acidity down to 5% which is what most people are used to.If you get your hands on a one gallon jug just dump the bad wine into it and put it back in the garage and leave the cap loose on it so it can evaporate a little and let oxygen in because it needs air to oxidise or become vinegar if you will.

  I use a small barrel I for my hands on and I leave the cork loose and use a small towel over it to keep dust out of it. When I need to fill the vinegar bottle I cut the wine vinegar by 25% by using garden variety white vinegar to make up the 25% in it so it's not as strong.


   I also replace what I took out of the barrel with cheap jug wine or any left over wine after we have people over( as if)and this way I never run out and haven't run our in over 25 years.


 I have friends that want it so the deal is I'll give them all the want as long as they replace it with wine,so I trade them a bottle of vinegar for a bottle of wine as long as it's not the real sweet stuff but it can be as cheap as they want.

 As for uses,you can use it anywhere you would use the stuff you buy.
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Offline LadyVirginia

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Re: Storing wine
« Reply #17 on: August 08, 2012, 10:23:05 AM »
thanks, JF.  I'm doing this!
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Offline John Florida

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Re: Storing wine
« Reply #18 on: August 08, 2012, 11:34:27 AM »
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Re: Storing wine
« Reply #19 on: August 10, 2012, 10:38:42 PM »
Cavit Pinot Grigio (not my first choice, but hey, it's here n' so am I): Just fine.

Tastes good, smells good, feels good... Next....
"A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means."

- Thomas Jefferson