general wine question
I was cleaning out my car today to load up for college, and found a bottle of white wine under my seat. It was in a shopping bag, and my mother obviously bought it at the grocery. problem is, I have no idea when. I live in southern louisiana where the summer heat can get over 100 degrees every day. It could have been there all summer for all I know.
I really hope its ok to drink, because when I found it, it felt like my birthday!
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8 Comments:
Try it, maybe it's fine!
But don't count on it.
Good luck!
Silvia at 9:50PM on 08/18/09
Maybe dig up a recipe for white so that if you taste it and it's rank, you can still put it to good use?
joyyy at 9:57PM on 08/18/09
I would make risotto with it, but risotto isnt really a microwave dorm room recipe...
delilah at 10:06PM on 08/18/09
Pop it. If it tastes good drink or cook with it. There is an interesting Wine Library TV episode where Gary V. compares wine left on the hot tar roof, to wine in the fridge to wine at the proper temp. He actually winds up liking the heat treated wine. However, if it has been in the car at 100 + for many weeks, chances are it doesn't have any life left. Care to share the wine, producer and vintage?
I would disagree with the above posters on one count, don't ever cook with bad wine. If you won't drink it, don't cook with it. Would you make any other dish with a spoiled ingredient?
derosa at 10:25PM on 08/18/09
there's only one way to find out ...... hmmm.... where's the wine opener?
pooch at 10:34PM on 08/18/09
Estancia Monterey Chardonnay 2005. if its totally spoiled, of course I wouldn't cook with it. if its on the fence I would rather make risotto than drink it.
I will pick up an opener tomorrow, and post the result.
delilah at 10:41PM on 08/18/09
Well, interestingly sometimes a limited exposure to heat will improve the fruity characteristics of wine--for a little while. I've heard that some lesser quality wines are treated this way by some shady wineries.
Your wine is "cooked." If the bottle has been heating and cooling and heating and cooling for a prolonged period of time, there may be some visible wine leakage dried on the cork and under the foil. If that's the case, with all that expanding and contracting, air has inevitably leaked into the wine, too. And air is arguably worse than heat. If the wine is oxidized you'll notice the chardonnay will have a distinct amber hue, the wine will have a noticeably tart sharp fruit character (I think of too tart apple cider). Heat and air combined with time wreck havoc on the microbial balance of wine.
Sorry, I got a little carried away. I won't go on. I do this to my family and friends, too. They ask a simple question about wine and I talk for half an hour.
Hopefully you found your wine in time. Cheers.
wookie at 1:25AM on 08/19/09
I just got back from Silver Coast Winery at Ocean Isle Beach, NC. I bought a couple of cases of wine and they would not allow me to load them in my car until I was ready to leave. The summer heat of a parked car will destroy good wine I was told.
Poultrygeist at 5:08PM on 08/19/09