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lower temperature will cause colloids to precipitate from wine, the most common one being tartrates. As some people have already mentioned, this can cause the wine to change flavor, texture, and pH.

the temperature for this reaction is dependent on a variety of factors; an average winery will usually cold-stabilize their wines between 5 and -5 celcius – basically freezing the wine then filtering it, so there are no colloids to settle out if the wine reaches that temperature again. once you go below that temperature, you will start to see tartrates, and your wine might become hazy, but i’m sure it will still be perfectly drinkable.

thanks for letting me ramble about me recent new knowledge! hope that was slightly relevant to your blog

Daniel – good to know you don’t have a problem unless it’s really cold.

Todd – Vermont to the rescue! Thanks for your observations and good luck with your wine. Btw, why do you cold stabilize if it’s not a commercial wine? If you don’t overly chill a bottle of your wine, then you won’t precipitate the crystals, no?

Sally – good trick to know!

Damien – funny you are looking out for the distributors’ shock absorbers!

Thomas – thanks for stopping by and drawing on your Finger Lakes experience.

R Sonoma – Thanks too. Interesting that you actually did have some corks push via shipping. That must have really been cold.

Robin C – yes, try it and report back to us…if you are still able!

Mike V – funny! Sounds like that was an instance of a good system blockage.

Bill – is that a sort of cryogenic wine cellar?

As for quality: generally, the quality of a wine that has frozen and then thawed–once–is minimally, but noticeably affected. Mainly acids drop, but also something happens that I believe is connected with the water content of wine and it strips some of the body-heft from our perception, ever so slightly.

Generally, it’s not so easy for wine to freeze during shipping–but because the stuff is in glass and corked, it’s also not such a great risk to take.

The same profit motive that might have someone ship in bad weather without a reefer comes into play here in the consumer’s favor.

While one might think the bottle in the snowbank would freeze, snow is a pretty good insulator as most Eskimos and winter campers would attest.

That said, yesterday morning I had to do an emergency extraction of wines I’ve have cold stabilizing for less than 48 hours in the mud-room leading into the house. While the larger demijohns were OK, carboys were showing crystallization of water at the surface, and a small half-gallon jug for topping up turned to an actual slushy…granted it was -17F outside, and maybe 10 degrees higher in the room. Will have to wait until this cold snap moderates before I can put them out there again.

I have also frozen partially consumed wines in the past as a test, then thawed them for sensory analysis, and have determined that while it can strip the nuances from a finer wine, it can also relieve a less well made or balanced wine of hard edges, more so with reds, likely due to the tartaric acid reduction. A second freezing of the same wine does not have any positive effect.

Too many folks are paranoid once temps drop below 30. Heck, 30 is pretty optimum for shipping, as the trucks are probably 45 degrees inside!

I think it got to 20F overnight.

Here’s an article suggesting the water portion might freeze before the alcohol: http://van.physics.illinois.edu/qa/listing.php?id=1640

Keep us posted on your “research”!