Wine stored at home ages FOUR times faster
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Italian scientists discovered that red wine (pictured) ages four times quicker when stored at home
It is often said that a good wine tastes better with age. But a new study has found that if it is stored at home, fast ageing can occur, which leads to a less tasty tipple.
Italian scientists discovered that wine ages four times quicker when stored at home.
In an experiment, red wine kept in conditions mimicking a dark room in a house was less flavourful and contained fewer healthy antioxidants than wine stored in a professional cellar.
The two-year study found dramatic differences between wines depending on where the bottles were stored.
Two hundred bottles of red wine were placed in a professional cellar at 15 to 17 °C (59-62°F) and another 200 were kept in conditions replicating a dark domestic room, between 20 and 27°C (68-80°F).
Dr Fulvio Mattivi, of the Edmund Mach Foundation wine academy in San Michele all'Adige in Italy, said: 'We discovered a relatively small difference in the temperature speeds up several chemical reactions associated with wine ageing and even promotes new reactions that are not observed at lower temperatures.'
'After six months under domestic conditions the wine in the bottle was approximately as "old" as a bottle from the same producer and lot stored for two years under cellar conditions. The house-stored wine was ageing approximately four times faster.'
He said that the wine stored in the dark room had fewer healthy antioxidants and less red pigmentation than the professional cellar versions - making it less flavourful.
Wine is one of the few commodities that can improve with age but it can also rapidly deteriorate if kept in inadequate conditions.
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Red wine stored in conditions mimicking a dark room in a house, was less flavourful and contained fewer healthy antioxidants than wine stored in a professional cellar (pictured), according to the study
The three factors that have the most direct impact on a wine's condition are light, humidity and temperature.
A wine symposium in San Francisco, organised by the American Chemical Society, heard that it is important where grapes are grown, as well as how wine is stored.
Another study showcased at the event, showed that Argentinian wine produced from purple Malbec grapes had more ripe fruit characteristics, sweetness and higher alcohol levels than the same type of wine made in California, which was more bitter and had more artificial fruit and citrus aromas.
Researchers looked at the chemical and sensory effects of different regions using 41 research lots of Californian and Argentinean Malbec wines.
CLIMATE CHANGE COULD BE CAUSING WINES TO BECOME CORKED
An abundance of low quality cork trees with thin bark may be ruining the quality of wine corks.
The reasons for the lower quality of trees, which has steadily declined for 20 years, can be attributed to climate change according to a team of researchers.
The bark of the trees, which grow in southwest Europe and northwest Africa, might be being chemically changed by increased exposure to ultraviolet light as a result of climate change.
The genetic study was led by Dr Rita Teixeira of the University of Lisbon and shows how the £1.2 billion ($2 billion) cork industry is at risk.
To produce a good product, cork producers need bark at least one inch (25 millimetres) thick - if the cork is too thin it will let air into the bottle and ruin the wine.
But the trees, called Quercus suber trees, have undergone a drastic decrease in quality to the point where there bark is now as little as 0.1 inches (three millimetres) thick - just 10 per cent the optimum level.
There are several factors like climate change, landscape changes and the dry seasons getting longer that could be causing the decline,' Dr Teixeira from the University of Lisbon told Live Science.
'The change in bark quality may be the trees' way of adapting.'
Research led by University of Lisbon says the quality of wine corks is decreasing. They say this is due to thinning bark on the trees that produce wine corks, known as Quercus suber trees (pictured). They have seen a drastic decline in quality in 20 years, and thinner bark means the corks are worse at keeping air out of bottles
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