Freezing Screwcapped Wines...

Someone asked out here in CyberSpace a month or so ago what happened when you freeze a screwcapped wine. Short answer: Nothing. Long answer: It freezes.
I inadvertently left a FessParker (ohoh...it's started up again....Davey, Daaaaaveeeeee Crocket...King of the Wild Frontier...running thru my mind) FrontierRed '61 (Lot 1 from 2006) in the freezer Sat night, w/ the intent to cool it down a bit afore trying.
So...the wine froze solid. Didn't break the btl at all. Just stretched the screw cap capsule open and some of the froze wine leaked out & down the side of the btl, putting a slight bulge in the top of the screwcap. After it thawed out last night, it tasted perfectly fine to me....lots of tasty/ripe fruit. Pretty good drinking stuff at a very good price.
TomHill

Shoot! When I did this, I assumed the wine was completely ruined and chucked the bottle (my bottle was conventional cork). It did the same thing-pushed the cork up and leaked a little puddle of frozen wine in the freezer.

I guess I should have left it thaw.

Shoot! When I did this, I assumed the wine was completely ruined and chucked the bottle (my bottle was conventional cork). It did the same thing-pushed the cork up and leaked a little puddle of frozen wine in the freezer.

I guess I should have left it thaw.

I've forgotten numerous btls in the freezer & they've frozen solid. It just pushes the cork and leaks out some wine. But after it thaws, it seems to be just fine in my experience. I've not been able to tell that it took anything away from the wine. Maybe wine is a bit tougher than most people think??? Nawh...couldn't possibly be!!
Tom

Were you wearing your coonskin cap when you opened it? When it comes to freezing wine, keep in mind two things. First of all, the necks of Champagne bottles are frozen before disgorging. Second, wines, especially whites, are cold stabilized - commercially at about 24 Deg.F. I've left carboys in the tool shed at 5 Deg.F and they were like slush with no harm done. On one occasion, however, I did allow a carboy to freeze solid and the carboy broke - lost 5 gallons of Chardonnay. So as long as the bottle doesn't break, no harm done.

I've noted that when wine freezes, it doesn't form a hard/solid chunk like ice; but turns into sorta slush, rather dendritic in nature, and just firms up, w/ some sort of liquid/slush sorta occluded between the ice dendrites. So that's probably the liquid that's squeezed out around the cork as it freezes. So there is probably a slight drop in the alc level as the wine thaws, reflecting the alcohol rich liquid that's squeezed out. Ahhhhh..but what would I know...I'm just a simple little ol' country computational physicist who don't know jack $hit about physical chemistry.
Tom

I've forgotten numerous btls in the freezer & they've frozen solid. It just pushes the cork and leaks out some wine. But after it thaws, it seems to be just fine in my experience. I've not been able to tell that it took anything away from the wine. Maybe wine is a bit tougher than most people think??? Nawh...couldn't possibly be!!
Tom

Tom, I think it was in issue #61 of the Wine Advocate that Parker wrote about freezing wine. Or it might have been on the old Prodigy wine board when he was the guru there. Anyway, I have of course accidentally frozen many bottles, and never had a bad one yet. OTOH, I have deliberately frozen far more, and again with no drawback that I can determine. I have been preaching this as a way to put an open bottle away when it is known that it will be days or perhaps weeks before it is finished. The longest I have kept a bottle frozen is about 6 months.

I've noted that when wine freezes, it doesn't form a hard/solid chunk like ice; but turns into sorta slush, rather dendritic in nature, and just firms up, w/ some sort of liquid/slush sorta occluded between the ice dendrites. So that's probably the liquid that's squeezed out around the cork as it freezes. So there is probably a slight drop in the alc level as the wine thaws, reflecting the alcohol rich liquid that's squeezed out. Ahhhhh..but what would I know...I'm just a simple little ol' country computational physicist who don't know jack $hit about physical chemistry.
Tom

I believe the technique used to make "Apple Jack" is to freeze hard cider, stick a hot poker through the middle of the batch and pour off everything that doesn't freeze. Many years ago I did this with some wine of borderline quality and aged it in a small oak cask for 2 years, resulting in a very sherry-like beverage.