WINE kept in a dark room at home ages faster than when stored in a professional cellar, scientists have found.
Researchers stored 400 bottles of Sangiovese wine between either a wine cellar with a strictly regulated temperature of 15°C to 16°C or conditions that mimicked a home environment with a temperature varying between 20°C and 26°C.
Fulvio Mattivi, from the Fondazione Edmund Mach institute in San Michele all'Adige in Italy, said: "We discovered that a relatively small difference in the temperature speeds up several chemical reactions associated with ageing and even promotes new reactions that are not observed at lower temperatures.
"After six months under domestic conditions, the wine in the bottle was approximately as 'old' as a bottle from the same producer and lot stored for two years under cellar conditions. The house-stored wine was ageing approximately four times faster."
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