Refrigeration times

Mar 09, 2005 9 Replies

Take a look at the table below. Any corrections? Any additions? Thanks.



WINE REFRIGERATION TIME Sparkling 4 hours Light Sweet Whites 4 hours Dry Light Aromatic Whites 2 hours Medium-bodied Dry Whites 1.5 hours Full-bodied Sweet Whites 1.5 hours Full-bodied Dry Whites 1 hour Light Reds 1 hour Medium-bodied Reds 40 minutes Full-bodied Reds 20 minutes


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What are we timing here? None of this makes anysense but I suspect you're trying to tell what temperature to serve wine at?

The amount of time this requires in your fridge would hence depend on their initial temperature, the temperature of your fridge, whether the bottle is in contact with anything else, etc... Most wine comes out of my cellar the right temperature (sometimes the reds need to sit out for a bit to warm up).

Whites/sparklers bottles should feel noticably cool (but not ice cold like things that have been left for days in the fridge). Most reds should feel like their just below the room temperature.

I've never gotten more involved than that.

"Leo Bueno" skrev i melding news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Which temperature is your fridge? Which temperature is your living space? Which temperature is your wine before you put it in the fridge? Anders

Why are u giving emphasis upon refrigeration time rather than refrigeration temperature ?

Here is a web site giving answers upon temperature :

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(in french) summary :

Champagne : 8-10 °c Slopes Champagne : 14-16 °c

Alsace white : 8-10 °c red : 12 °c late grape harvest and noble selections of grains : 10-12 °c

Bordeaux white dry : 8-10 °c Liqueur-like white wines : 5-6 °c Light and pale red wines : 12-14 °c Red wines with maturity : 16-18 °c Old reds : 18-20 °c

Bourgogne white dry : 10-12 °c red : 15-17 °c

Beaujolais white dry : 8-10 °c New wines : 10-12 °c red : 14-16 °c

Jura white dry : 10-12 °c red : 14-16 °c

Savoie white dry : 10-12 °c red : 12-14 °c

Côtes du Thöne white dry : 10-12 °c Rosy wines : 8-10 °c red : 15-18 °c

Corse and Côtes de Provence white dry and rosy : 8-10 °c Sweet aperitif wines : 5-6 °c red : 14-16 °c

South-West white dry : 8-10 °c red : 15-18 °c

Loire Valley

white dry : 8-10° red : 14-16°

yo', lee ...

most guys here are too polite in their queries. what the hell is your point?

Because it is not easy to measure the temperature INSIDE the bottle.

Given that "room temperature" is generally uniform in the climate-controlled world and so are refrigerator temperatures, a refrigeration time rule of thumb may not be bad approximation.

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Well put.

I am just trying to figure out some rules of thumb for serving wines.

Yes, there temperature guidelines. I am trying to approximate those guidelines in another domain: refrigeration times.

The assumption is that bottles are originally stored at "room temperature", meaning not in the basement but where the family actually lives, and that folk set their refrigerators' temperature fairly uniformly.

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ok, in that case, take a time constant of 20 mn (saying tau), as a rule of thumb, then, having T1 the romm temperature where the bottle was, take T2 the fridge temperature, the bottle temperature will follow :

Tbottle = T1 + (T2 - T1).e^( - time / tau)

time being expressed in the same unit as tau...

for time in hours (tau = 1/3) gives :

Tbottle = T1 + (T2 - T1).e^( - 3.time)

giving, for time :

time (in hours) = (ln((T2 - T1)/(Tbottle - T1)))/3

as far as i remember well algebraic computation ;-)

but "refrigerators" (whether they have thermostats set to achieve mid 50's or low 40's) cool 75% more quickly than does proper wine storage equipment. the former is designed for quick recovery to avoid food spoilage or maintain temp in high volume, commercial operations serving wine. likewise, the quick evacuation of warm air will result in a dehydrative effect, jeopardizing the corks and wine in any time more than a few months.

the latter is designed to avoid severe fluctuations that would have an adverse impact on the integrity of wines under "storage" (i.e., "long term). the delta is minimized, temps are more consistent and higher humidity relative to the lower temperature is achieved and maintained.

one could always drop a bottle into liquid nitrogen for about 0.005 seconds if one is really in a hurry.

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