I bought a bottle of zinfandel with my girlfriend about three weeks ago. I put it in the fridge for the evening but we never ended up drinking it, and I haven't had a use for it since she left.
Today a coworker and I were talking about having a dinner party at her place, and I mentioned that I had a fantastic zinfandel in my fridge I would bring over. She made a face and said that red wines should never be stored in the fridge.
Now, I know enough about wine to know that red wine is, subjectively speaking, "better" at room temperature, as opposed to white wines, which are nice chilled. However, this bottle of wine has been in my fridge for three weeks. From a casual wine-lover's perspective, have I changed this wine in any way by putting it in my (very cold) fridge for an extended period of time? Or am I fine bringing it to a party if it's room temperature by the time it's served?
edit: To clarify, it's unopened.
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Red zinfandel is served at room temperature.
If it's white zinfandel (read the label, and it will be pink), leave it in the fridge. Your friend is right in that red wines are not stored in the fridge, but chances are your wine is a white.
But don't serve it to that coworker of yours, who is too snobby to drink a red that has dared to touch the inside of a refrigerator.
An unopened bottle will be fine for a couple of months. If you are storing it for years to mature and develop you need to control temp but that's a science in itself and depends on the wine.
There aren't any storage issues, provided the lid was sealed properly.
However, regardless of where you store it(except direct sunlight, which is bad), It's Extremely important to always store your wine bottles laying down. By keeping your wine bottles down, the wine will keep the cork moist. When bottles are stored standing for an extended period the cork can dry out letting air(oxygen) into your wine, and basically start turning it to vinegar.
Also it's recommended to spin your bottles(on their axis) every once in a while, but that step is less important.
And yes I've been storing it on its side. Luckily I know enough about wine to remember that much :P
Side bottle storage is only important if you are keeping the bottles for many years and don't have decent humidity in your storage area. If you are just hanging on to bottles for a couple months while waiting for a good occasion to open them, it makes no difference at all.
Mmmmm....toasty.
Also, because fridges are a dry environment, you most definitely want to keep it on it's side if you're going to wait until Christmas to open it. Being in there will rapidly speed up the drying out of the cork.
http://wineintro.com/basics/temperatures.html
As has been pointed out in this thread the "room temperature" that red wine is supposed to be served at generally isn't actually room temperature. On that chart, zinfandel is at 59 F, which would be a pretty cool room. So there's really not any reason to store it in the fridge unless your house is extremely warm, but you should chill it just a bit before serving.
Oh I'm aware I didn't need to put it in the fridge. I had more room in my fridge than on my countertops, so I've taken it out.
And great link Daenris, thanks.