The wine typically freezes for about 4-6 hours in a typical kitchen freezer, based on the temperature and alcohol in the wine. You want your wine to freeze down more quickly. Who can wait for a glass of wine to cool down, really? You decide to look for solutions online among “wine enthusiasts,” but it turns out that only a tiny percentage of these are accurate. Let’s find out if a freezed wine can explode.
Will wine bottles explode in the freezer? Yes, in some instances. When you open the freezer, you’ll sometimes discover a bottle gushing with frozen wine seeping through the screw cap seal or even one whose cork has been forced out. Is it damaged? We’ll discuss that afterward.
Fermentation produces carbon dioxide, which may be rather powerful and, if it has nowhere to go, can put stress on the cork in the bottle, leading it to blow apart. The wine will first enlarge as it freezes. This indicates that the wine will eventually crush the bottle, seep around the cork, or totally push it out. Not only would you squander your wine by doing this, but you’ll also have trash in your freezer that can be hazardous and made of glass.
Continue reading this article to learn more about the finest “non-exploding” methods to freeze wine and other solutions.
How Does Wine Freeze and Is It Still Safe to Drink?
The agony of having an iced bottle of wine is not simply the mess; it’s also the possibility that you won’t be able to consume it.
You can still drink wine if you are in a predicament like this. The sooner you can consume it, the better. You can even make a “frosé” and go all out if you want to! If not, put it in the fridge to thaw.
Several things can occur once the bottle has frozen. One possibility is that the wine will expand and cause the bottle to explode. If you don’t consume the wine immediately after finding it frozen in the refrigerator, air will sneak in and oxidize it, thus turning it into vinegar.
Screw-on tops and damaged airtight seals on bottles can cause oxidation. The parts will start to separate when the bottle is frozen. The tartrate crystallizing is the cause of this.
If you’re not an award-winning winemaker or just someone who is really picky about wine, the freezing procedure may modify the flavor of the wine in a very subtle way.
Do not be concerned if a bottle were to freeze. The flavor of your wine won’t be harmed. Just be sure to remove it from the refrigerator.
But the wine that will blow up is the bubbly stuff. Therefore, if you don’t want to find out via a very spooky and unpleasant explosion during a dinner party, Don’t leave a bottle of this in your freezer.
How To Cool An Exploding Wine
The following techniques can help you swiftly cool a sparkling wine without making a huge mess.
1. Place a Wet Towel Around the Bottle
A wine at room temperature can be frozen after being wrapped in a damp cloth. The idea behind the towel wrapping is that cooling will be accelerated by water evaporation, so they say. It should be chilled enough just to drink in approximately 30 minutes. It’s probably not the fastest technique, but it may work.
Maybe this isn’t the ideal choice, though, if you require a rapid solution. It will work brilliantly if you have an industrial blast freezer, but not everyone does.
The damp towel may provide insulation for the wrapped bottle of wine in the freezer, making it take longer to cool. Additionally, even with a towel covering it, your wine in the freezer is still likely to blow up if you forget about it.
2. Refrigerate it Horizontally Rather than Vertically
It may not seem like a legitimate way to cool wine, but there is a known method for cooling wine more quickly. No genuine studies support the idea that cooling wine horizontally is better, but science says it can’t harm to give it a shot. It turns out that, unless it includes drinking it, scientists are not particularly interested in this sort of thing.
The outcome of chilling wine horizontally relies on a few things, such as a controlled chilling environment—not your freezer at home.
But according to various texts, it has been demonstrated in several home experiments that horizontal is preferable to vertical. However, there isn’t much difference unless you rely on a supercomputer to perform precise scientific calculations.
3. Fill the Wine Glass with Frozen Items (Including Grapes)
It is advised to add a few frozen grapes or wine freezing cubes to your glass of wine without diluting it, and this advice may be obtained online.
Technically, this is correct because ice cubes are essentially being used. Practically, it calls for you to spend money on specialized ice cubes that you would want to chill for longer than a bottle of wine—about 2-3 hours—in the freezer. Not to mention that every time you take a sip of wine, you must deal with frozen components.
Of course, this approach really does work to cool wine. Even though it isn’t the most efficient approach. If you enjoy drinking wine in all its forms, even with specialized ice cubes and other accouterments, go for it.
4. Pour Ice into the Bottle
This one is arguably the most widely used of all of these suggestions. Since sommeliers frequently employ this technique in restaurants, it must be effective. Place your wine in an ice-filled bucket.
One thing, though, that you must remember is to fully immerse the bottle in the water. Even sommeliers frequently overlook doing this! As a result, the bottle has a heated top and an almost frozen bottom.
Observe these methods to effectively excellent wine in an ice-water container:
- Fill a container with about? Remember to leave space at the top when adding ice and water.
- Add some Kosher salt, lowering the water’s freezing point and hastening the cooling process.
- Wrap the bottle with plastic to protect the label.
- Sommeliers and wine enthusiasts frequently suggest doing this to enjoy a chilled glass of wine. No concerns if you don’t have Kosher salt. Without it, you can still chill the wine.
- Having a ton of ice is essential for this feat. Your wine will cool down in about 15 minutes if you don’t add any salt.
5. Empty the Bottle of Wine
Why does it take so much time for your favorite bottle of wine to get chilled? Because of the bottle itself. But you already know this, don’t you? Due to its poor thermal conductivity and weight, glass makes up more than 40% of the material. Therefore, it seems that cooling it down requires much effort.
You can prevent the entire bottle scenario by taking the wine out of the bottle and placing it in a Ziploc bag. Place it in freezing water after sealing it. Thus, this is chilling wine advice. Imagine that it will take around two minutes for only one glass of wine in a Ziploc bag to reach 50°F. Really lovely, no? The wine can also be divided among many wine glasses, covered with plastic wrap, and stored in the refrigerator.
The glasses will naturally cold much more quickly because they are smaller and lighter than a bottle. Just contrast 90 minutes for the entire bottle to 30 minutes per glass. The advantage of using the freezer rather than ice water is that you may gradually raise the temperature of the wine.
Using a freezer for bottles or ice cubes exposes wine to freezing temperatures, which may lead to over-chilling the bottle and subsequent interior chilling. This is one of the techniques that, in terms of speed, is comparable to freezing a bottle of wine.
Conclusion
You can attempt any of these techniques, but most only function in specific situations. In the unfortunate event that you fail to chill your bottle of wine beforehand, you will inevitably find yourself waiting for it to cool. That is, in fact, the terrible truth.
You can put your glass of wine in a Ziploc bag and freeze it for two minutes if you ever need a drink. Make small talk while submerging the bottle in ice water for large gatherings of visitors. Wrap some wine glasses and place them in the fridge if you have 20 to 30 minutes to spare.
Use a timer if you’re concerned you’ll overlook the chilled wine glass in the freezer. It may be helpful in these situations, and everyone will be excited to enjoy delectable wine when they hear the “ding” sound.
But you must never forget to take out your priceless bottle from the freezer lest you wake up to a complete mess. In addition to increasing the risk of the bottle exploding, leaving it overnight is a terrible strategy for waking up in the middle of the night.
Hiiii! My name is Ruth and I am an experienced chef with a passion for food and cooking. My love of baking began when I was nine, and I have since been refining my skills in the kitchen ever since.
