Refrigeration

[Randy Caparoso]

Well, of course, the only real way to demonstrate the effect, or non-effect, of wines stored in the refrigerator is to actually put it to the test. I don't think I'm wrong because I always wager that I'm just as good at telling a good tasting wine from a bad as any other wine professional, and frankly I haven't made the observation that wines given middle term refrigeration (which I would put as anywhere from 1 week to 1 year) suffer for it. Call it what you will (re "refrigerated cellar palate"), but my suspicion is that this fear of refrigerators would be dispelled just as quickly as many other common wine myths -- like "breathing," or vacuvin-ing -- if put under actual scrutiny.

Then again, quality -- as we all know -- is definitely in the mind. It's what makes the world go round; and far be it for me to begrudge other wine nuts for the the pleasures of their knowledge. Lord knows, we've all probably experienced situations in which entire rooms of wine lovers are oohing and ahing over stuff that, in your heart and on your palate, you know is really awful.

But before you undertake the test for yourself, consider this:

1. Extended refrigeration of white, sparkling and pink wines (again, anywhere from 1 week to 1 year) is practiced in virtually every restaurant in every American town; including, I dare say, many of your own favorites. Restaurateurs don't do it on purpose, of course. We like to sell them within 15 minutes! But unfortunately, some bottles take longer to sell than others.

2. Zillions of serious wine collectors keep refrigerated whites and sparklers handy for drinking at a moment's notice -- which could be next week, or at the end of a 6 month cruise. Who cares? Sure tastes good.

3. As long as a cork holds, it's always a safe bet that the wine is holding also. In fact, in my studied opinion there is far more to fear in a refrigerated bottle of wine NOT being able to evolve due to LACK of moderate temperature, rather than oxidizing too soon.
And wines that are nicely evolved are, after all, another of life's pleasures.

So in other words, I certainly am not suggesting to anyone that they should store wine long term in refrigerators. As a rule, you shouldn't -- it is simply an unnecessary risk. Insofar as home advice, it only takes 3 hours in the box for a wine to get cold (or about 45 minutes in the freezer), and so that's all you really need.

However, I am saying that if you should happen to forget a bottle sitting in the back of the refrigerator for, say, two, four, or even six months, don't sweat it -- chances are that not only has it somehow found a way to survive, but it could very well give you even more pleasure than if it had never gotten into the fridge (especially considering the average wine lover's up-and-down, warm "room termperature" storage).

[This message has been edited by Randy Caparoso (edited 09-09-99).]