Dual Vs Single Zone Wine Coolers: Differences & Similarities

1. Dual Vs Single Zone Wine Coolers: Differences &Similarities What makes a good wine? Some say it's the soil, some say it's the grapes, some say it's the barrels in which the wine is aged, but they're wrong. That's not to say that soil, grapes and barrels aren't important, but nothing is more important than temperature. Temperature determines how quickly a wine ages and the balance of flavours. If a bottle of wine is chilled too long or left in the hot sun for a few hours, it will become undrinkable. This is why winemakers spend a lot of time on temperature- controlled wine cellars and why wine drinkers spend a lot of money on winecoolers. A wine cooler is a small refrigerator designed to keep your wine perfectly chilled until you are ready to drink it. There are a plethora of variations, but the most popular are single zone wine coolers as well as dual-zone wine coolers. Single zone wine coolers are very easy to use. You raise or lower the temperature to the ideal storage range (usually 55°F) and leave it there. A cooling system at the rear of the unit sends cold air into the unit, preventing the temperature from running out ofcontrol. The wine stays cold and uncontaminated until it is ready to be popped and drunk. Despite the simplicity of this system, single-zone wine coolers are quickly being replaced by a new and innovative system: the dual-zone wine cooler. Dual-zone wine coolers offer the same level of cooling power, but with better storage options. By splitting the storage space in half, the Dual Zone Wine Cooler provides excellent storage for both red and white wines. Storing white wine at a lower temperature prevents oxidation, making it easy to enjoy both red and white wines at optimal temperatures. Oxidation & Dual Zone WineCooler Regular readers will know that wine is not a static solution. It's a constantly evolving mixture of more than a thousand different components and chemicals - tannins, oxygen, alcohols and esters - each reacting and interacting with the other. This complexity is what gives the wine its rich flavours and puts it at risk when stored at the wrongtemperature. NewAir AWR-1160 Dual Zone Wine Cooler[/caption] Many things can happen to wine as it ages, but its greatest enemy is oxidation. When oxygen interacts with the wine's chemical solution, it flattens the rich, complex flavours youlove. It leads to the development of aldehydes, organic compounds that give the wine its old, critical flavour and also encourages the growth of microbes that produce acetic acid, one of the main components of vinegar. Wistfully, if you possess a bottle of wine long enough, there are some degree of oxidation which is inevitable. Eventually, a small number of oxygen molecules will eventually seep through the cork and into the wine. The good news is that there are two ways to slow this process: the first is tannin, which is determined by the chemistry of the wine. The second is determined by the temperature of thewine. Tannins are organic chemicals found in the skins of fruits such as bark, seeds, leaves and grapes. In wine, tannins attract or bind oxygen molecules to form long chains of molecules called polymers. The more tannins there are in the wine, the fewer free oxygen molecules there are to oxidize. Red wine is filled with tannins because the skins and seeds of the grapes are used to ferment them when making the juice. It also absorbs more tannins as it is aged in oak barrels. White wines fermented without skins or seeds are less susceptible to oxidation than red wines because they have little or notannins.

2. With no chemical protection, the only way to prevent oxidation is to store them at lower temperatures. The temperature at which the wine is stored determines the amount of energy required for the chemical reactions inside the wine. The rate of reaction doubles for each 18-degree increase in temperature. If you store wine at 73°F for one year, you've stored it at 55°F for two years, which is the preferred temperature, and if you store it at 91°F for one year, you've stored it at 55°F for fouryears. So why do winemakers care so much about how their wines are stored? Why doesn't the wine ripen faster when the temperature is raised? That's because not all reactions that take place inside a wine have the same heat threshold. For example, it takes less energy for tannins to polymerize than it takes for sugars and acids to ferment. For tannins, raising the temperature to 73°F is the equivalent of storing them at 55°F for eight years. This would throw off the balance of flavours all together. But the process also has the oppositeeffect. Lowering the temperature of the wine below 55°F slows down the rate of reaction and, in particular, the rate of oxidation. (At 55°F, all of the wine's reaction rates proceed at about the same pace.) Chilling wine is a great way to extend the life of white wine, as it is less harmful than heating it. This method is only recommended for white wines, as red wines, due to their tannins, do not benefit much from lower temperatures. Some red wines are actually so robust that they can be stored at temperatures slightly above 55°F without any problems. These differences are why dual-zone wine coolers are so advantageous. Red and white wines can be stored together in the same unit while customizing the storage temperature for red and white wines. You can keep your wines fresher for longer than if you were to store them at the sametemperature. Serving Temperatures & Dual Zone WineCoolers The temperature at which the wine is served is just as crucial as the temperature at which the wine is stored. Temperature not only affects the chemistry of the wine, it also affects certain microchannels called TRPM5, which are located on thetongue. These channels transmit electrical impulses to the brain that are interpreted as taste. These channels are more receptive when they are warm than when they are cold. This is why warm food tastes better than cold and is one of the reasons why wine should be served at a different temperature than the one at which it is being stored. A wine that is too cold will taste weak and flat, while a wine that is too warm will taste toostrong. Another reason is the effect of temperature on the flavor compound of a wine. When a bottle of white wine is chilled, its sweetness is diminished and it becomes crisp and fruity. Red wines, on the other hand, taste better at higher temperatures. The higher the temperature, the less noticeable the acidity and tannins, and the smoother the taste. Temperature also increases the wine's volatility - the rate at which the wine evaporates and releases flavor compounds. The cooler the temperature of the wine, the weaker thearoma. The aroma of a wine is a major factor in determining its taste. The human tongue can only detect five basic tastes - sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami (meat) - but it can detect many more when drinking wine. That's aromas, the esters, aldehydes and terpenes that fill the head of the glass. These components create the woody, nutty, spicy and fruity aromas we enjoy when we drinkwine.

3. The key is to make sure that the wine doesn't become too volatile. Too many flavor compounds can be overwhelming. You want to keep the wine in a narrow range where they release just the right amount of aroma. Too much of that and the wine will taste bad. Here's what temperatures are appropriate for the most popular reds and whites. If you want to buy a dual zone wine refrigerator in Australia, you can rely on Kingsbottle: one of the leading wine coolers manufacturers inAustralia.