Is it OK to take a chilled bottle of wine out of the fridge, and then chill it again later?
Hello there! I'm Dr. Vinifera, but you can call me Vinny. Ask me your toughest wine questions, from the fine points of etiquette to the science of winemaking. And don't worry, I'm no wine snob—you can also ask me those "dumb questions" you're too embarrased to ask your wine geek friends! I hope you find my answers educational, empowering and even amusing. And don't forget to check out my most asked questions and my full archives for all my Q&A classics.
Dear Dr. Vinny,
Can you take unopened white wine out of the fridge?
—Dana, Chesterfield, Va.
Dear Dana,
Sure! That’s my favorite way to drink it!
But seriously, I bet you’re wondering if it's OK to take an unopened white wine out of the fridge—say, to make room for something else—and then later put it back in and chill it down again. Typically, that is fine, but I wouldn’t recommend doing that a hundred times, nor would I recommend doing that multiple times if the temperature of the room is wicked hot. Temperature extremes aren’t good for wine.
I suspect questions about wine going in and out of the fridge or cellar come from some myths about how to handle beer. I was told to never let refrigerated beer get warm and then cool it down again, otherwise it would get skunky. But that itself is a myth. Beer doesn’t get skunky from temperature changes, but from exposure to ultraviolet light (which can also damage wine, albeit in different ways).
—Dr. Vinny
