I have a couple bottles of white wine sitting in my fridge. Will it ruin them to take them out and store them at room temperature for a while?
Thanks in advance.
Iam not a wine expert, but IMO, unless this is wine you’re planning to cellar & age, moving it to room temperature for awhile shouldn’t be a problem.
Wines in general don’t like temperature changes, but if you’re planning to drink it in the next few weeks, probably no noticeable harm will come of it.
no, it should be fine. Just keep them out of direct sunlight and try to store them on their side rather than standing up.
Actually, experts recommend that you take white wine out of the fridge 20 minutes before serving anyway.
Thank you, Murky and Motorgirl.
These are unopened bottles you’re talking about, right?
Once opened, they’re not going to last more than a couple of days even with refrigeration. One thing I’ve found that helps delay them going bad is a wine vacuum pump.
I find most wines do fine at stomach temperature. Take out the cork, drink the wine and call it quits.
It’s probably true that you’re not going to hurt the wine, but as a serious wine person I need to ask a couple of additional questions.
What kind of wine is it exactly? Chardonnay? Sauv blanc? Riesling eiswein? (Mmmm.) Also, what’s the quality? Are these your typical grocery-store-bought bottles, say in the ten dollar range? And most importantly, how long have they already been sitting in the fridge?
Most wines don’t particularly like being kept at refrigerator temperatures for long durations, so if you’ve had them chilled for more than, say, three months, and if they’re good-quality wines, it’s possible the quality has already been impacted, a move to room temperature notwithstanding. (This is why it’s not recommended to get a pre-chilled bottle out of the cooler at the grocery store; you don’t know how long it’s been there.) If the bottle is only average quality, say a non-specific “white table wine,” a three-month chill probably won’t hurt it to the degree that your taste buds will notice.
Ideally, you want to keep the bottles at cellar temperature (50-55 degrees or so) until you’re ready to drink them, and then chill them no more than 48 hours before serving. Moving them back and forth between cellar and fridge is a good way to damage the flavor, particularly if it’s a really nice wine with a sensitive balance.
Also note that most people serve wine too cold, restaurants included. White wine should not be frosty from the fridge; take it out at least half an hour beforehand. And red wine should be somewhat cool on the tongue, but not cold at all, so straight from the cellar is usually perfect.