On Thu, 19 Oct 2006 10:10:37 -0400, Mark Lipton >
wrote:

>4. The issue of oxygen solubility becomes virtually moot if one makes
>any effort to exclude oxygen from the bottle, either by evacuation or
>filling to the top, or blanketing with nitrogen, etc.
>
>5. My own experience is that cooling the wine down does hlpe preserve
>it, but I usually take pains to exclude oxygen.

I understood that most of the oxygen that causes damage will be in the
wine before it is put into storage. The extra bit that may enter
through the surface of the wine in a stationay bottle is minimal
compared with that which will enter as the wine is being sloshed in
the bottle while pouring glasses. And decanting into a half bottle
may make matters even worse. So the issue is rather how to stop the
dissolved oxygen from oxidising the wine.

Evacuation or blanketting will of course reduce the partial pressure
of oxygen above the wine, and so may pull oxygen out of the wine, but
again I doubt how big this effect will be.

In practice I am not sure how much any of this matters. Personally,
these days I normally recork and put in the fridge.

Some think that evacuation removes aromas. Anyone here with any
thoughts on that. Again, I find it difficult to believe it makes much
difference.

--
Steve Slatcher
http://pobox.com/~steve.slatcher