Warming Wine in the Microwave

[Don Giovanni]

'MW shock' yes a new term...

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Before the note...I had my wife nuke the wine for 7 seconds...after she let the wine sit for 15 min she called me downstairs to taste...she used two exact glasses...I was able to pick out the Nuked wine spot on first few sips from each glass...

Quote:

wine temp will do this (source Amerine) at 95 F the palate will have more sensitivity to sweetness and sourness at higher temps... at 50 F bitterness is more pronounced...

I think for me the nuked wine had pronounced and distinct sweet notes with less of an acid tingling sensation...this is why I think some like the nuked wine better ...Americans talk dry and drink sweet...this supple change to the wine made the fruit seem more new world...then I let the wine sit in the glasses for 20 min...after 20 min the wines seemed to even out to a point...the nuked wine finally tasting more like the un nuked wine...my conclusion is no harm done at all...did I just say that???...ok very short term yes a change then she comes back to where she should be... I will call this 'MW shock' yes a new term...

[docsconz]

Just out of curiosity, what was the impetus for this experiment?

[Rebel Rose]

I think John's experiment was a response to online conversations about whether or not warming wine in the microwave would have a detrimental effect on the wine.

What to do when you come home from work, take that half-full bottle of red wine out of the fridge, and don't want to wait for it to warm up? Why, you pop your glass in the microwave and zap it for 5 seconds, that's what!

Personally, I have never tried this. Rumors abound that it happens in restaurants . . .

[Fat Guy]

In order to determine whether microwaving alters the taste of wine, all other factors would have to be controlled for. The two samples would have to be at exactly the same temperature when tasted, they would need to have been out of the bottle and breathing for the same amount of time, etc. In addition, microwaving would have to be compared to other forms of heating, such as wrapping the bottle with a hot gel pack, immersing it in hot water, etc., in order to ascertain whether the microwaves themselves affect the wine or if it's simply the act of applying quick heat that does it, if it does anything. I'm sure a real scientist would come up with a dozen other things that would need to be tested here.

[Don Giovanni]

I think John's experiment was a response to online conversations about whether or not warming wine in the microwave would have a detrimental effect on the wine. 

What to do when you come home from work, take that half-full bottle of red wine out of the fridge, and don't want to wait for it to warm up?  Why, you pop your glass in the microwave and zap it for 5 seconds, that's what!

Personally, I have never tried this.  Rumors abound that it happens in restaurants . . . 

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Thank you Mary,

Your spot on...so have any of you ever done this...? have you ever heard this being done in the restaurants???

Cheers,

john

[GordonCooks]

I think John's experiment was a response to online conversations about whether or not warming wine in the microwave would have a detrimental effect on the wine. 

What to do when you come home from work, take that half-full bottle of red wine out of the fridge, and don't want to wait for it to warm up?  Why, you pop your glass in the microwave and zap it for 5 seconds, that's what!

Personally, I have never tried this.  Rumors abound that it happens in restaurants . . . 

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The house rule is no left over wine.

[Don Giovanni]

I think John's experiment was a response to online conversations about whether or not warming wine in the microwave would have a detrimental effect on the wine. 

What to do when you come home from work, take that half-full bottle of red wine out of the fridge, and don't want to wait for it to warm up?  Why, you pop your glass in the microwave and zap it for 5 seconds, that's what!

Personally, I have never tried this.  Rumors abound that it happens in restaurants . . . 

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The house rule is no left over wine.

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Gordo,

Same in my house

[mcsheffrey]

I've done it myself a couple of times but I found that the microwave doesn't manage to heat evenly throughout the glass. You need to stir it really well to make sure that you don't get one warm sip followed by a cold one (ugh). If you do that the wine seems to be ok, but I agree with Fat Guy that a proper taste test with all variables controlled for would be required to come to a conclusion.

I certainly wouldn't have enough faith to subject a really nice wine to this treatment.

[Rebel Rose]

Exactly. Chemically (atomically?) I don't think it would hurt the wine anymore than a slow warmup, but the possibility of overcooking it is high. Shoot, I can't get frozen corn dogs at a consistent temperature for 30 seconds. Sometimes hot, sometimes not . . .

On other wine sites there are up to four pages of discussion on how microwaves work and how molecules rub together, but for me it all comes down to the possibility of human error. If I can't get a corn dog right, why would I nuke my wine?

[docsconz]

There's always The Wine Clip.

[Kouign Aman]

In addition, microwaving would have to be compared to other forms of heating, such as wrapping the bottle with a hot gel pack, immersing it in hot water, etc., in order to ascertain whether the microwaves themselves affect the wine or if it's simply the act of applying quick heat that does it, if it does anything. I'm sure a real scientist would come up with a dozen other things that would need to be tested here.

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If you want to know "the best method" for rapidly warming wine, then your experiment would be as described.

But if the question is simply whether or not to nuke, then the experiment is also simpler: the only parameter to be tested is the zap. The sole reason to use another method is to generate a control glass of wine at same temp for that initial tasting. It can be a mistake to test too many parameters at once. Better data comes from more replicates. If I zap wine on 3 diff days, same amount of time, same glass, ?same result? Because the experimenter's perception is the thing most likely to vary in this experiment.

However, since you and I have different power microwaves, and different glassware, we'd each need to optimize to our own systems, regardless of what the experts found.

[Malkavian]

Tangentially, I remember reading an old post on a cigar forum of a gentleman who took half a box of cigars (Hoyo de Monterrey Rothschild for the curious) and microwaved them for a short amount of time and put them down to age alongside the others, theorizing the breakdowns and other chemistry of the aging process would surely be altered by the heating effect adn the microwaves themselves. If I recall correclty he actually ended up favoring the 'nuked' ones as having less of some flavor note or other that he didn't care for.

Not for a moment suggesting any great vintage be microwaved to observe how it ages (well, i'd be curious, but we're using YOUR wine ) but one would think the same principles would apply, the radiation changing how the breakdowns and reactions occur and so on.

[Don Giovanni]

Tangentially, I remember reading an old post on a cigar forum of a gentleman who took half a box of cigars (Hoyo de Monterrey Rothschild for the curious) and microwaved them for a short amount of time and put them down to age alongside the others, theorizing the breakdowns and other chemistry of the aging process would surely be altered by the heating effect adn the microwaves themselves.  If I recall correclty he actually ended up favoring the 'nuked' ones as having less of some flavor note or other that he didn't care for.

Not for a moment suggesting any great vintage be microwaved to observe how it ages (well, i'd be curious, but we're using YOUR wine ) but one would think the same principles would apply, the radiation changing how the breakdowns and reactions occur and so on.

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Malkavian,

Thanks for the post...I will try this with a Cuban and compare after some aging...