Has Anyone Tried Freezing Port to Preserve Once Open?

[Barry Sunderland]

I think I'll give this a try since I cannot finish a bottle of port, vintage, LBV, or tawny in time to contain freshness.

[Glenn E.]

Need more !

[Roel B]

I think I'll give this a try since I cannot finish a bottle of port, vintage, LBV, or tawny in time to contain freshness.

There are a few preservation methods other than freezing you could try.

1. The one I love most is quite simple: pour one half of a bottle into an empty, clean 375ml bottle directly after opening. Fill it up all the way and put a cork into it. Preferably use a new cork on it (used corks have holes, except of course if you use an ah-so!). You now have just a half bottle to finish.

2. Using a vacuum system such as Vacuvin - cheap, easy and it does slow the oxidation process

3. Use a wineshield in the bottle. Also cheap, easy and slows oxidation. Even though they are sold as single use (which actually make them kind of expensive), you /can/ recycle them - they can be easily taken out of the bottle by something that we dutch folks invented a long time ago: a "flessenlikker". One of those kitchen tools that dates back to the time when dessert dairy products came in glass bottles and people wanted to get everything out of it. But they are still sold here for next to nothing, and they make the perfect tool for getting wineshields out of a bottle, 100% success, always in one piece!

4. Put the bottle in the fridge - this also slows oxidation.

I usually combine 2, 3 and 4 for every bottle of wine that won't be finished immediately. (1) is reserved for special wines. But I regularly do this when I open up a vintage port and have a few 375ml bottles lying around here. I do try to finish those within a few months, but they should be oke for a longer period as long as there is very little oxygen in them.

Option 5 is a bit more expensive, which is to get a argon/co2 based preservation system.

As for freezing: I have wondered on more than one occasion whether freezing would have any impact on the wine. It would be a cool idea to organize a blind tasting to test this. I have regularly had bottles of wine on my boat during winter, which have seen temperatures as low as -20C, and I did not notice any major faults when drinking those in the next year. However, those were mainly <EUR 10 wines. I've never done any blind side by side comparison.

[Barry Sunderland]

Roel,

Yes, I've used all of those methods over the years.
I have tried freezing table wines, and I'm quite impressed with the results, yet I've never tried to freeze a port.

[Andy Velebil]

I've frozen table wine as well. The only real noticeable issue was the lack of acidity after thawing, leaving the wine flabby. No idea why that happens, but it is a complaint I've seen on other wine boards as well. I've not tried it with Port though.

[Roy Hersh]

My wife will take red wine and Champagne and put them in ice cube trays and freeze them, then stores the wine-cubes in freezer bags. That way, when we need to make a quick sauce we just pop them in the sauce pan.

We have also taken Ruby Reserve Port and inserted it into frozen molds and put popsicle sticks in them. Great in the summer!

[Andy Velebil]

My wife will take red wine and Champagne and put them in ice cube trays and freeze them, then stores the wine-cubes in freezer bags. That way, when we need to make a quick sauce we just pop them in the sauce pan.

We have also taken Ruby Reserve Port and inserted it into frozen molds and put popsicle sticks in them. Great in the summer!

haven't tried either. i like the idea for sauces.

[Roel B]

I've frozen table wine as well. The only real noticeable issue was the lack of acidity after thawing, leaving the wine flabby. No idea why that happens, but it is a complaint I've seen on other wine boards as well. I've not tried it with Port though.

Would be nice to test in some kind of blind tasting session. And to get a chemical explanation why this happens.

We have also taken Ruby Reserve Port and inserted it into frozen molds and put popsicle sticks in them. Great in the summer!

Cool!

[Moses Botbol]

Why does (if it actually does) the fridge slow oxidation? I am a fan of the half bottle method.

[Bradley Bogdan]

Why does (if it actually does) the fridge slow oxidation? I am a fan of the half bottle method.

It does actually slow oxidation, and does so simply by being cold and therefore slowing down the movements of all the molecules in the wine/air that bump into each other to perform the oxidation reactions. It will also lower the amount of O2 that is able to dissolve in your wine, again due to the cold, and also potentially limits the volatility of those volatile compounds that make up the nose/flavors of the wine so they don't fly off before you smell/taste them.

[Frederick Blais]

We have also taken Ruby Reserve Port and inserted it into frozen molds and put popsicle sticks in them. Great in the summer!

That's great!! I'lll definitively try that this summer! Just need to watch the kids when they help themselves :)

[Christian Gollnick]

What are you guys doing...?!?!?!?! Freezing Port? And a few weeks ago you wanted to put Port in boxes? What's the next torture? Waterboarding the bottles? If this is the fortheloveofport.com-forum, then I really don't want to know what they discuss in the forthehateofport.com-forum... Don't do these bad things to my Port, please....
Joking aside, I use mainly the fridge-method and I'm quite pleased. Most LBVs are showing best after 48 hours in the fridge, I think... A bottle of vintage unfortunately doesn't last so long, normally I drink it faster...
I love the popsicle idea! This is what the lodges in Gaia should start selling to the tourists! I'm sure this would be a very successful product during the hot summer-months...
Roy, quick, register the trade-mark for the Portsicles!

[Barry Sunderland]

I've frozen table wine as well. The only real noticeable issue was the lack of acidity after thawing, leaving the wine flabby. No idea why that happens, but it is a complaint I've seen on other wine boards as well. I've not tried it with Port though.

Andy,

Once you thaw the wine, shake it up before pouring. The tartrates tend to drop to the bottom during the freezing.

[Andy Velebil]

What are you guys doing...?!?!?!?! Freezing Port? And a few weeks ago you wanted to put Port in boxes? What's the next torture? Waterboarding the bottles? If this is the fortheloveofport.com-forum, then I really don't want to know what they discuss in the forthehateofport.com-forum... Don't do these bad things to my Port, please....

[Bradley Bogdan]

I've frozen table wine as well. The only real noticeable issue was the lack of acidity after thawing, leaving the wine flabby. No idea why that happens, but it is a complaint I've seen on other wine boards as well. I've not tried it with Port though.

Andy,

Once you thaw the wine, shake it up before pouring. The tartrates tend to drop to the bottom during the freezing.

Haha the consumer version of cold stabilizing your wines? The freezer!

[John F. Newman]

I think the simple answer to this experiment is to freeze just the last glass of a bottle for a week.

Then, the night before you drink taste the experiment's results, I would put the bottle in the fridge to thaw out slowly, and drink the next day.

[Andy Velebil]

I think the simple answer to this experiment is to freeze just the last glass of a bottle for a week.

Then, the night before you drink taste the experiment's results, I would put the bottle in the fridge to thaw out slowly, and drink the next day.

If I can remember...well really if I can save one last glass, I'll give this a shot with Port and see how the experiment works.