For The Love Of Port

If you google "freezing wine" you will find lots of articles by people who do it and say that it is a great way to store wine once it has been opened.
(Some even say that it gets better, but I would be satisfied if thawed wine was about the same or even only a little bit worse.) I often decide against opening a bottle because I don't think I will be able to finish it in time, and I rarely am able to drink much during the day because of having things to do, so the idea of grabbing three or four ice cubes of wine from the freezer and putting them in a glass to thaw (some microwave!) caught my eye. And apart from being a good way to preserve an opened bottle there are plenty of other situations where it could be handy, such as for people who count calories or alcohol units.

Anyway if it works with wine, why not port? Three or four ice cubes of port would make life even better, wouldn't it? So of course I decided to freeze a bottle of port (a half of Champalimaud, which seemed like an acceptable risk) and poured it into a plastic ice-cube bag. And of course, as anyone would think, it made slush. I decided against fooling with dry ice, or even adjusting the thermostat on my freezer to get it solid. However the slush tastes great and after eight weeks seems quite fresh when thawed. As a next step I am going to get a bunch of very small plastic bottles that hold just a couple of ounces and try them. It is an awful nuisance getting port sludge out of ice cube bags, and a lot seems to end up on the walls etc.

Has anyone tried this? Any thoughts or suggestions? And yes, I do see that there are bottles you would not want to try this on. T.

T.
I would not recommend to freeze wine in any case. If you freeze a bottle of wine, you will see that it developes sediment, and you destroy aromas, structure and the balance in the wine. Wine is a living product that should be gently cared for, and it will be more or less destroyed if you expose the wine to extremes like freezing or storing the wine in to warm conditions. Absolute maximum heat for storage I think is 20 degrees celcius.

It is the same with fresh food, if you freeze it, it chances carachter, and its not as good quality anymore.

It is just like that.

As you already noted, I don't think that port would truly freeze completely due to the alcohol content, at least not at normal freezer temperatures. I also have found that good vintage port can last several weeks in a decanter without serious degradation, so freezing to preserve it shouldn't be needed.

Although, the thought of walking around on a warm summer day sucking on a "portcicle" does sound appealing.

All the best,
John

Hello Björn,

Fresh food may taste better than food that has been frozen, but can you imagine living without frozen food?

Anyway for the sake of the experiment let us assume that you open a bottle, and you know that it will not keep until it has been finished. So there is nothing to lose. The question is, how well does freezing work?

Here is an answer to the point about the funny sediment:
http://www.stormhoek.com/archives/2006/ ... em_wit.php

Best, Thomas

That thawed port still tastes pretty good after 3 months in the freezer. Port sorbet is great too. T

James Laube over at wine spectator often talks about freezing wine and he seems to think it causes no ill effects, even with his sensitive palate. On the other hand, I don't see how it wouldn't have at least some subtle effect on the wine.

I must have missed this thread when it was originally posted, but a portciscle or even port slush does sound alright. I doubt I'd ever try it with any kind of Vintage Port - I think I would just suck it up and drink the entire bottle over a couple of days rather than freeze it. But I may try something like this with a cheaper Ruby or LBV.

Wait - Roy - Port Slush as one of your drinks you were looking for? No mixing necessary!!

Todd

I've recently tried the freezing left overs of dry wine, and it works quite well. The only thing I noticed was the acidity drops a bit when thawed out. I've not tried it with Port, but next time I open a ruby I'll put some in the freezer to see how it does.