Like any wine lover knows, it should be stored in a cool and dark place. But why is that so? What will happen if we do not store wine in such an environment? In this article we will answer precisely these curious questions.

The ripening of the wine in the bottle is like a mystery. A food product, such as wine (except a few milligrams of sulfur), does not contain preservatives and can often be stored for decades without even spoiling. Prolonged storage, or even ripening, even on the contrary – can improve the quality of the most sophisticated alcohol. For the beers now the Custom Stubby Coolers are used. But there are more options now.

 

  • Of course, we cannot summarize this for all kinds of wines, as there are those who have developed an exceptional taste after 100 years. Yet these are rare exceptions. Most of the wines produced for daily consumption retain their qualities for a certain period of time and certainly will not improve afterwards.

Regardless of the potential of the wine that can grow during aging, the same rules apply to all: a suitably chilled storage space and retarding the ripening process. In fact, this wine process can be roughly calculated – a method of the world of chemistry (ultimately, the maturation of wine is nothing more than chemistry).

This equation, within the temperature range where wine is stored, shows that raising the temperature by 10 ° C will increase the maturation speed by factor 2 to 3. This is still theoretically!

But what is actually happening in practice and is the change in storage temperature some noticeable effect on the taste qualities of the wine?

The Norwegian Food Research Institute has conducted an interesting experiment to find an answer to this question. Several identical cylinders of the Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon were stored at four different temperatures (5 ° C, 10 ° C, 23 ° C and 31 ° C) and the specimens were sampled over a certain period of time.

After 6 weeks of aging, there was almost no difference between the bottles. After 6 months, however, there was a clear sign of a decline in fruit flavors in wine stored at 31 ° C, and the signs of an active aging process were obvious.

After 12 months, the same effects were also seen in fermented grape juice, which was stored at 23 ° C, i. E. at normal room temperature.

 

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