You might think that because cask wine is vacuum sealed in a plastic bag it would stay fresh longer than traditional wine in a transparent glass bottle, but that turns out not to be true. Cask wine can spoil much faster than bottled wine, and the only thing that can help keep it fresh is a low temperature.
Photo by Mark Ou.
A study by food scientists at the University of California at Davis and published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry reveals that the plastic commonly used to seal boxed wine is a thin plastic polymer that’s remarkably easy for oxygen to get through. The large surface area of the bag means more oxygen can get to the wine over time.
More critically, the temperature at which the wine is stored, both before and after sale, has a major impact The study showed that any wine subjected to high temperatures will spoil, but cask wines spoiled much more quickly than the bottled varieties. The lesson? Whatever you buy, store it in a cool place.
When It Comes to Boxed Wine, The Cooler the Better [The Salt (NPR) via Discovery News]
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