The shelf life of wine

The aim of this project was to investigate and develop models for the shelf life of bottled wine and, in particular, the effects of elevated temperatures on the aging process. The MISG group divided the problem into three sub-problems. First, calculations were made to describe the temperature of wine in a single bottle when subjected to an elevated external temperature and then this was extended to pallets of cartons of wine. This has application to determining the temperature of the wine during both the transport and storage of wine. Second, equations were derived for the gas flow through the cork when a wine bottle is subject to oscillatory temperature variation such as is common in a domestic storage situation. This has important implications to the aging processes in the wine as cork breathing can lead to increased oxidation of the wine. Third, the temperature dependent reaction rates of the wine aging processes were considered and calculations performed on how elevated temperatures decrease the shelf life compared to ideal cellaring conditions. Suggestions were made as to relatively simple experiments that can be performed to test the aging models developed here.