Transforming wine into vinegar
The summer after I graduated from high school, I participated in a foreign exchange program spending three weeks with a host family in the Province area of France. Upon my departure, the family gave me two bottles of wine to take home to my family. Once home, I placed the wine upright on a shelf in my family’s basement never giving it a further thought. Surprisingly, those two bottles of wine reappeared, sans labels, a few years ago in a box of memorabilia my mother had saved from my youth. Considering that I am the oldest of six children, I find it pretty amazing that this wine remained unopened all these years. I have decided that I will serve it to my family the next time we are all together in my home. To this, my youngest brother has remarked that the wine most likely has spoiled and will taste like vinegar. Is this possible? Doesn't wine improve with age?
I discovered that wine can indeed be transformed into vinegar; the word vinegar means sour wine in French. It is caused by a process called oxidation. This occurs when wine is exposed to the sun or if the cork becomes loose and the wine is exposed to air. Proper storage is the key to preventing oxidation from occurring. Wine must be stored in a cool environment with no direct sunlight and the bottle should by lying on its side or upside down at all times. This keeps the cork moist with wine and swollen against the neck of the bottle. If the bottle is stored upright the cork begins to dry out and shrink. After a few months, air may begin to slip between the neck of the bottle oxidizing the wine. Also white and rose wines are meant to be drunk while young and fresh not stored and not all red wines are meant to be aged; only those with generous fruit and firm structures are up to the task.
The two bottles of wine, a red table wine and a bottle of champagne, that traveled all the way from France in my suitcase, spent twenty years standing upright on a shelf in my parents basement, a year or two in a box, and four years standing upright behind the bar in my basement, have most likely been transformed into vinegar.
I discovered that wine can indeed be transformed into vinegar; the word vinegar means sour wine in French. It is caused by a process called oxidation. This occurs when wine is exposed to the sun or if the cork becomes loose and the wine is exposed to air. Proper storage is the key to preventing oxidation from occurring. Wine must be stored in a cool environment with no direct sunlight and the bottle should by lying on its side or upside down at all times. This keeps the cork moist with wine and swollen against the neck of the bottle. If the bottle is stored upright the cork begins to dry out and shrink. After a few months, air may begin to slip between the neck of the bottle oxidizing the wine. Also white and rose wines are meant to be drunk while young and fresh not stored and not all red wines are meant to be aged; only those with generous fruit and firm structures are up to the task.
The two bottles of wine, a red table wine and a bottle of champagne, that traveled all the way from France in my suitcase, spent twenty years standing upright on a shelf in my parents basement, a year or two in a box, and four years standing upright behind the bar in my basement, have most likely been transformed into vinegar.
posted by Savvyworkinggal @ 4:19 PM
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