The Auswine Forum

Anyone have any info on the freezing point of wine?

Cheers

Grant

This would depend on the alcohol level, more alcohol, lower the freezing point. Don't have any tables to tell me what they are though.

Funny you should mention that Grant.

I was speaking to my wine shop guy today who was telling me the story of freezing a vintage port to keep it for longer than a week. He said that it didn't get all the way frozen and had the consistancy of motor oil. After it came back to room temp he said it was great.

He also mentioned that most wines froze at around 27 Fahrenheit or -2.8 C.

Got me to thinking if freezing left over wine would slow or holt the effects of the oxygen that has mixed with the wine after opening? He also mentioned that if the wine had been cold filtered when it was made, taking out the tartric acid, it could be frozen without the tartric crystals forming.

Elvis

Don't try it at home.
The bottle will crack!

No, I'm trying work out if I put some wine in my luggage, will it freeze when it hits the tarmac at a very cold place i am going to!


GD

When i went on the seppelt tour i think i remember the guide saying they freeze the left over 100 year old para after taking it from the barrel...i think it was to top up other bottles? maybe someone can correct me there.

When I made a Coq au vin a month ago i used half a bottle of Penfolds Koonunga Hill from stelvin....screwed the cap back on threw it in the freezer and 3 weeks later after defrosting it was still drinkable and was fine in another Coq au vin....maybe for quaffers and cooking it would be ok :/ Oh yeah and the bottle didnt crack either....i think thatd only happen if there was not enough room for the water to expand into.
As for freezing point depression of wine...id guess that is a rather complex prediction however assuming alcohol alone is the contributing factor u could calculate it using the point depression constant of water which is 1.86. So for every mole of stuff in the water per kilogram u get a depression of -1.86 Celcius....if i remember my 1st year Physical chem.

so for a bottle of 1998 Grange which is 14.5%:
14.5% = 145g of ethanol per litre
divide that by the molecular weight of ethanol: 145/46 = ~3.15 moles of ethanol
so in every litre of grange u have 855g of water (assuming all u have is water and alcohol. Now calculating the molality of the ethanol in the grange = 3.15/0.855Kg = 3.68
now multiplying that by the constant -1.86 u should expect your grange to freeze at about -6.8Celcius.

However there are lots of solutes in your wine including sugar and other water/ethanol miscible organics.....so i guess its pretty hard to predict exactly when it will freeze.


Red Stuff

Red Stuff

You're a genius! I don't really care if you made that whole thing up, it sounds so bloody good that I'm treating it as fact. Last weather report I had was for a minimum of minus 6, phew, I'll just make it!

Cheers


GD

lol.
Im sure if u search google for something along the lines of "freezing point depression" u will find a better explanation and step by step calculations for solvents other than water!


Red Stuff