Forget your Coravin, Pungo and Wine Squirrel -- use the fridge

Interesting series of tweets from Jason Haas of Tablas Creek:

Nothing wrong with that - as long as you let them warm up before you drink.
Best, jim

Had a wine tonight which had been open since Easter Sunday and we kept outside the fridge (shielded from sunshine). It was fine.

A few issues with putting wine in the fridge:

The solubility of a gas in a liquid solution increases with a decrease in temperature.

So a cooler wine will allow more oxygen to be dissolved in it than a warmer one.

However, as you lower the temperature, you also lower the rate of the reaction.

With white wines, the slower chemical rate of reaction wins out over the higher oxygen solubility. So there’s not much of an issue with storing them in the fridge as they tend to be drunk colder.

The issues start when dealing with red wines. What often ends up happening with reds is that by chilling it you are introducing more oxygen in solution, and then when you take it out of the fridge and allow it to warm up, it is also speeding up the rate of reaction, oxidising the wine faster. So if you are storing red wines in the fridge, be ready to drink it on the cooler side to avoid this.

I opened a bottle of bubbly (2010 En Tirage Blanc de Blancs Recently Disgorged Extra Brut) on the 10th and was about to toss the remainder of the bottle, which was kept in the fridge, on the 16th, but to my pleasant surprise, it was showing well. That being said, I’ve had regular success with my Coravin for up to a month and I don’t think I’ve otherwise ever had a regular table wine last that long once opened in the fridge.

I disagree. Using my Coravin, I am able to sample 10 bottles at the same time without worrying about opening a bottle too soon or not being able to finish.

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I have no problem with a day after opening a bottle. But beyond that for me the quality goes down dramatically and each day it gets much worse. But taste is individual, so of course do what suits you.

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I don’t think you can generalize. I’ve been refrigerating leftovers for years and I find a huge amount of variability. Some wines show noticeable oxidation on day 2, but that’s the exception. Last week, I had the remaining glass of a 2015 Cogno barbera that had been in the fridge for five days and it showed very well.

If I want to finish a bottle within the week, the fridge is perfect. Otherwise, the coravin lets me delay having to decide when to finish a bottle for several weeks

I think I will stick with Coravin.

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I’m describing my experience with numerous bottles. Your description of inconsistency is the problem for me. I only drink a glass a day, so one bottle is consumed over 4-5 days, or longer if I drink something other than wine on some nights. Are there some wines that may fare better just by re-corking over 5 days? Probably. But why would I take that crap shoot when I can use a simple device that I know will preserve very close to first day taste? By posting about the QikVin I have no motivation to convince anyone to change what they like, I’m just passing along my experience with a device that works well for me. I hope it’s taken in that spirit.

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Add on the use of little little bottles and I fully agree. I love those 4 oz. Boston rounds!!! I’ve had great luck with 5 days +, as well, with essentially no movement on the quality that I can detect.

Way better results than with vacu vin, and I don’t mind drinking the wines a bit on the cooler side personally. True that it does take a little time to get warmer and that would be oxidation time, so may not work for wines with very little life left at the get go. But that’s not a common problem for me, and I find most of the wines I drink actually are still benefitting from that added air during warming in the glass.

I’ll fill a six ounce bottle to the rim so there is only the tiniest amount of air in it then put it in the fridge. I’ve found this works great for overnight storage.* I’ve never gone beyond one day though except for wine intended for cooking. In that case, it has been fine after over a week.

  • Including two 1975 Bordeaux.

I don’t know what you’re drinking, and I think that makes all the difference.

I’ve found that a lot of Rhone wines, north and south, even fairly young, develop VA after just a day in the fridge. Nebbiolo- and sangiovese-based wines, on the other hand, are pretty resilient and often improve with a day or two in the fridge. (But not the remains of a 2005 Produttori di Barbaresco normale I just tried that was opened and mostly consumed Friday. No surprise, given the age.)

I’ve had pretty good luck with cabernet-merlot-malbec blends holding up well for several days. And a 2017 Drouhin - Haut Cotes de Beaune a week or so ago was much improved after a day in the fridge.

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I certainly don’t doubt your experience. I haven’t cataloged a list of specific wine types that are hurt more or actually benefit from several days of being re-corked. My overall experience has been one of disappointment after a day or two, and having better results with preserving by eliminating air. I may find some that just re-corking for a day or so, and then preserving, works best. Good to have that perspective, but I’m also glad to have the preservation option as well. [cheers.gif]

finish the damn bottle on day one.

For those of you advocating a Coravin, note that Jason also says it (or a wine keg system) works. (part 8 of the thread). He is skeptical of inert gases after pouring, vacuuming, etc., saying that once oxygen is in, it is in and the reactions have started. As he mentions, Coravin immediately replaces oxygen and so is different.

If storing for more than a day, the C Fu boston round storage in fridge works well for a few weeks without significant oxidation and is covered in & discussed in threads below:

Without meaning to be rude, you’ve got some pieces correct, but overall this is not a good description. First, once you stop pouring from the bottle, and leave it stationary on the table of in the fridge, oxygen is going to diffuse in extremely slowly. No matter what the solubility is, diffusion will limit whatever oxygen gets in. Essentially, whatever is in the wine when you cork it up and stick in the fridge is all it’s going to see. So chilling the wine, then warming it up, isn’t going to accelerate any oxygen related reactions; third, those reactions are very slow anyway, so warming it up and drinking over a few hours won’t change the wine significantly; fourth, many or us drink most white wines at the same temp as red wine, so I wouldn’t make a distinction between them.

Wines usually go in the fridge in a smaller format. Opened a magnum last week and poured it into two 375s and a 750 and drank them over the course of a week. The 750 a few days later was still very fresh, though I’m only particularly critical the first day or so.

If I have something special, I might top it with a Repour, which worked great for double decanting aged Barolo and enjoying it over two different nights. There have been instances where the second half bottle has even shown better than the first.