Well, here is something to make you think, or maybe to reinforce what you already think! I always, and I mean always, stick my reds in the fridge once I open them or decant them, even if they have just come from my wine fridge, since I truly think the ideal temp for many reds is in the mid 60’s, rather than the low-mid 70’s (room temp): it seems to give life to the fruit component and tame the alcohol, which dominates the aromatics if the wine is served too warm, all too common here in the Florida heat.

 So this weekend, I had my eyes set on a Chianti Classico, and cooked dinner around it. Sadly, once the wine was poured and the dinner was plated, I realized the bottle was corked! I really hate that, since I look closely at each bottle I buy to assess the fill, capsule and cork to minimize my chances of this happening! Sometimes it happens, no matter. My back up bottle was a Cru Beaujolais at 5 years old, which, to be honest, I didn’t have high hopes for. My ‘PLAN C’ was to throw a bottle of the 2007 Frog’s Leap Cabernet in the freezer to give it a quick chill in case the Beaujolais let me down….which it did not!

 Which brings me to the point! The Cru Beaujolais was fine, almost Burgundian. Life was manageable again, until the following morning, when my wife asked me if I had the Frog’s Leap Cab in the freezer for a particular reason…of course the cork had pushed entirely out of the bottle, and the wine had run down the baggies of stock meat and into the bottom of the freezer.

 I pulled it out, put it in the sink until the wine returned to, well, wine….shook it up and stuck it in the fridge for about 15 minutes. Of course I tasted it then, knowing in my mind that there was NO chance of resurrecting the bottle….yet it was fine!

Yet it was fine? Yep, fine! Tasted about like I would have expected if I hadn’t ruined it in the first place! Wish I were a scientist, rather than waste my time researching copper coins to drop in my wine to make them taste 4 times older and 3 times more expensive, I would like to learn how this did not ruin my bottle? Anyone?

 --Shayne Hebert, Wine Supervisor, Central Florida