Wine - Temperature and Taste Issues

You read about a wine that is strongly reviewed and hustle off to your local wine shop to get a bottle. You have some friends over and pop the cork for dinner. Much to your disappointment, the wine is okay but not nearly as good as the review suggested. The issue might be the temperature of the wine.

Wine is not like water. You can drink water at room temperature, ice cold or even a bit warm and still get relief. Warm wine is rarely very tasty. This is because the temperature plays a role in bringing out certain flavors and elements of the vintage. The temperature can also inhibit certain flavors and elements that might be to strong when the wine is at room temperature. Put another way, temperature is a key factor in bringing balance to the wine.

Wine

White wine is a classic example. It should be served just a bit cooler than refrigerator temperature in the 43 to 46 degree range. Obviously, that is Fahrenheit as the equivalent in Celsius would be a boiling wine! Regardless, this temperature range provides a perfect balance of the competing elements of the white. What if you serve it below this temperature range? The flavors all become bland and hard to distinguish. Serving the wine at room temperature, in contrast, produces a wine that is very acidic. Generally, it is best to start a white at around 43 degrees. As it warms up slowly in the glass, more flavors will emerge.

Wine - Temperature and Taste Issues

What about reds? Well, they say you should serve a red wine at room temperature. This cliché is from an older time and actually is incorrect in most modern environments. A red should be served at a temperature equivalent to the water coming out of your tap. I don't know about where you live, but that is a lot colder than the rooms in my home. To resolve the issue, just put your red in a tub of tap water for a few minutes and the temperature and flavor should balance out nicely.

Wine is very temperature sensitive. While we've covered the general guidelines for whites and reds here, always take the time to find out the optimal temperature for the specific wine you are going to drink. If you don't, you might think an otherwise fine wine has something wrong with it.

Wine - Temperature and Taste Issues

Thomas Ajava writes for Nomad Journals - makers of leather wine journals that make great wine related gifts for any occasion including wine tasting parties.

Wine Cellar Temperature and Humidity, What is Ideal?

The ideal temperature and humidity of any wine cellar would do well to mimic the natural conditions of France's legendary wine caves, which are acknowledged to be close to perfect.

Keeping the rest of the world's cellars at the same 55-57 degrees Fahrenheit (14 degrees C) and with an average of 60% relative humidity generally requires some form of dedicated wine cooling system. To properly control the cellar temperature and humidity, the system should take into account and manage not only the cellar's temperature but also the vagaries of the climate in which you live. It is hot/dry? Hot/humid? Cold/dry? Cold/humid? Will your system also be required to supply heating to maintain the correct winter temperature? These are all important considerations when building or retrofitting your wine cellar.

Wine

Understanding Temperature

Wine Cellar Temperature and Humidity, What is Ideal?

55- 57 degrees F (14 degrees C) is considered to be the ideal temperature for storing and properly aging wine. If the temperature consistently fluctuates up or down several degrees, your wines will be compromised and may age prematurely.

• Some cooling units are controlled using an in-bottle liquid temperature device, which signals the unit to adjust when it senses a change of 2 to 4 degrees of temperature in the liquid. Unfortunately, by the time the wine inside the insulated bottle reacts to the fluctuation, the air in the cellar has already shifted many more critical degrees.
• A wall-mounted thermostat with a range of + or - 1 degree F is ideal.
• Cellars subject to ambient temperatures below 55 degrees F should be protected by a heating coil. Without the ability to heat, a cooling unit can do nothing if the temperature in the cellar falls below the control set-point. The best system is one where the heating is integrated into the cooling unit and works on the same thermostat.

How to Resolve the Temperature Problem

• In all cases, quality should be a primary consideration. A cheap initial price will soon be forgotten if the wine cellar cooling unit fails and stresses your wine.
• Wine cellar units should be rated close to the intended operating temperatures and humidity. This means around 55 degrees F and 60% relative humidity. Be sure the unit you are buying is rated for wine cellar use, not household use.
• Because there are many variables other than the number of bottles or the cubic footage of the cellar to consider before selecting the type and size of a cooler, it is best if the calculation is done by a professional using a load calculation program. These variables might include frequency of door openings, lighting intensity, room insulation, doors and windows, frequency of case turnovers, etc.

Why is Humidity Important?

Humidity is a critical feature often overlooked in wine cellar design. 50% - 70% is recognized as adequate, with 60% the ideal.

• When the humidity is higher than 70%, it will likely cause mold and degradation of the labels and glue.
• When the humidity is below 50%, corks will begin to dry out resulting in loss of liquid in the bottles and possible degradation of the wine.

How to Resolve the Humidity

• First step should be the installation of a vapor barrier around the entire room. A minimum of 4 mil plastic is recommended with seams overlapped and taped. The vapor barrier is installed on the outside (or warm side) of the cellar insulation. This is to prevent condensation from forming on the vapor barrier, potentially causing mold.
• A cooling unit alone cannot add moisture or humidify cellar air. It needs a humidifier to do so. The best option is a humidifier integrated into a cooling unit so it operates and distributes the moisture evenly in the re-circulating air. However, a free-standing humidifier can also be installed in conjunction with a cooling unit as long as this is controlled by a high-quality wall-mounted thermostat.

Wine Cellar Temperature and Humidity, What is Ideal?

Wine Guardian® wine cellar cooling units are commercial grade equipment for upscale residential and professional wine cellars and storage facilities. Wine Guardian coolers are high-performance and installation-friendly, with many features and options not found in any other systems:

• Completely self-contained, requiring no external piping
• Can be installed through-wall, ducted remote, or any combination
• Built-in powerful, motorized impeller fans for external ducting
• Pre-wired, wall mount thermostat for flexibility of location and proper control of temperature and humidity
• Built-in, cleanable filters on both evaporator and condenser coils to keep free of dust and maintain optimum operating conditions
• Corrosion-resistant cabinets of powder-coated aluminum for lasting durability
• Options include: humidifier for dry locations; electric heating coil for cold climates; low ambient protection for mounting in cold areas such as a garage or outside shed

Wine Guardian wine cellar cooling equipment is distributed internationally. For more information: http://www.wineguardian.com

Wine - Temperature and Taste Issues

You read about a wine that is strongly reviewed and hustle off to your local wine shop to get a bottle. You have some friends over and pop the cork for dinner. Much to your disappointment, the wine is okay but not nearly as good as the review suggested. The issue might be the temperature of the wine.

Wine is not like water. You can drink water at room temperature, ice cold or even a bit warm and still get relief. Warm wine is rarely very tasty. This is because the temperature plays a role in bringing out certain flavors and elements of the vintage. The temperature can also inhibit certain flavors and elements that might be to strong when the wine is at room temperature. Put another way, temperature is a key factor in bringing balance to the wine.

Wine

White wine is a classic example. It should be served just a bit cooler than refrigerator temperature in the 43 to 46 degree range. Obviously, that is Fahrenheit as the equivalent in Celsius would be a boiling wine! Regardless, this temperature range provides a perfect balance of the competing elements of the white. What if you serve it below this temperature range? The flavors all become bland and hard to distinguish. Serving the wine at room temperature, in contrast, produces a wine that is very acidic. Generally, it is best to start a white at around 43 degrees. As it warms up slowly in the glass, more flavors will emerge.

What about reds? Well, they say you should serve a red wine at room temperature. This cliché is from an older time and actually is incorrect in most modern environments. A red should be served at a temperature equivalent to the water coming out of your tap. I don't know about where you live, but that is a lot colder than the rooms in my home. To resolve the issue, just put your red in a tub of tap water for a few minutes and the temperature and flavor should balance out nicely.

Wine is very temperature sensitive. While we've covered the general guidelines for whites and reds here, always take the time to find out the optimal temperature for the specific wine you are going to drink. If you don't, you might think an otherwise fine wine has something wrong with it.

Wine - Temperature and Taste Issues

Thomas Ajava writes for Nomad Journals - makers of leather wine journals that make great wine related gifts for any occasion including wine tasting parties.

Ideal Wine Temperature

The ideal temperature to store wines is between 55ºF and 58ºF (13ºC-15ºC).
However, any temperature between 40º-65ºF (5º-18ºC) will suffice as long as it
remains constant.

The degree and the speed of the temperature change are critical. A gradual change
of a few degrees between summer and winter won't matter. The same change each
day will harm your wines by ageing them too rapidly.

Wine

The most important rule when storing wine is to avoid large temperature changes or
fluctuations. You'll notice damage of this nature straight away from the sticky
deposit that often forms around the capsule. Over time the continual expansion and
contraction of the wine will damage the 'integrity' of the cork. It's like having the
cork pulled in and out again every day. When this happens, minute quantities of
wine may be pushed out along the edge of the cork (between the cork and the
bottle neck) allowing air to seep back in. Once the air is in contact with your wine
the irreversible process of oxidation begins and your wine is ruined.

At 55º to 58ºF the wine will age properly, enabling it to fully develop. Higher
temperatures will age wine more rapidly and cooler temperatures will slow down the
ageing process. Irreversible damage will be done if your wine is kept at a
temperature above 82ºF for even a month.

At 55°F wines will age slowly and develop great complexity and you will never have
to worry about them.

Every wine you buy should be placed in your cellar. Even if you are planning on
opening the wine shortly after purchase it will benefit from resting to recover from
the shock of traveling.

Before any bottle makes it into your cellar you need to consider the treatment it
received before you acquired it.

Every wine lover knows that heat damages wine but how many of us take care to
protect our wine at every stage? For example, you buy wine at a shop or winery, but
leave it in your hot car all afternoon. You get it home to your temperature-
controlled cellar, but by then you may have already cooked it. Remember that high
temperatures can result in undesirable chemical reactions that would not normally
take place.

Ideal Wine Temperature

Chris Miley is the author the popular ebook "How To Build A Wine Cellar" and also maintains the Wine Cellar Secrets blog where he reviews wines from his own wine cellar.