Storing temperatures in winter

Jan, My guess is that you'll be fine, with as you say slightly retarded development. I've never heard of any negative to cold storage (you can reference the Glamis castle collection) other than slow development (if that's a negative). As long as the variation is seasonal, should not be a problem. I think you'd have to get colder than that for more tartrate cyrstals to precipitate out (not that that's a big problem).

I'm assum> I keep my wine in a store temperated to 14 degres C (aprox. 57 F) all year.

Jan, changing the temps have little affect if long term like a season and therefore not daily fluctuations.

That said one of my storage cellars when to cold I did notice more separation of solids when kept colder.

I cannot explain why this occurs but a winemaker told me there is a method they use when the chill the vats to separate solids. If the wine gets close to that point he said you can have more solids...does not however affect the wine. And 46 should not do that anyway.

DaleW skrev i snipped-for-privacy@m7g2000cwm.googlegroups.com dette:

Thats a very sad story: Yes - it's terribly cold up here (off cause a very subjective statement) last Year 50 days below zero!

Yes.

Yes - its in the back of my garage.

Thank You for Your contribution to my enlightment.

regards Jan

"Jan Bøgh" skrev i melding news:455750c9$0$12696$ snipped-for-privacy@dread14.news.tele.dk...

Hi Jan Being north of you I regularly experience temperatures down to 40F (

Aha. If partially below grade or attached to house I was going to suggest that if only one wall that maybe insulation would work. If you don't mind slow development, you should be fine (and thanks for thinking of planet!).

Jan Bøgh wrote:

Richard Neidich wrote: [...]

Correct. It is called cold stabilization, causes tartrates to fall out of solution so they do not do so after bottling. Also said to help retain fruit flavors and retard spoilage, if I am not mistaken.

Most wines are cold stabilized by the winemaker if needed - simply stated, they are stored, during bulk aging, in cold storage which promotes the the crystallization of potassium tartrate. The resultant crystals are colorless and tasteless - they do not affect the wine, but are considered unsightly by some so winemakers prefer to remove them. You're right - at storage temps in the mid to high 40's, most commerical wines should not develop any precipitates.

As for the lower temp storage, shouldn't hurt any wines - but will retard the aging characteristics of some reds, which may be desirable. I would recommend avoiding big temp swings in storage - for instance, from mid 40's to mid 60's. Try to keep the range to around a total of 10 degrees. Easier said than done without comsuming power. I have a half submerged concrete walled cellar room, which I keep adding insulation to every year. Seems like it's never enough. But I've been able to hold temps to roughly a range of 57 to 65. Now if I could stabilize the humidity quite as well ....