Can you freeze wine?

Wine freezes at roughly −5 to −9 °C depending on alcohol content, so a domestic freezer will freeze it, slowly and unevenly. The bottle is the immediate problem: liquid expands as it freezes and glass bottles crack or push the cork out. The wine itself survives chemically but loses much of its aroma, and tartrate crystals drop out, so it is not something you would then pour into a glass. Frozen in cubes, leftover wine is genuinely useful for sauces and stews.

How to do it properly

1. Pour leftover wine into an ice cube tray and freeze the cubes
2. Bag the cubes once solid and label red or white
3. Drop straight from frozen into pan sauces, risottos and stews
4. Never freeze a full sealed bottle, and never freeze sparkling wine

What goes wrong

• A bottle in the freezer cracks or forces the cork out
• Sparkling wine is under pressure already and can burst
• Aroma compounds are lost, so thawed wine tastes flat

Other "can you freeze" questions

• Can you freeze cheese? It depends — Yes, and it stays safe indefinitely — but hard cheese comes out crumbly and soft cheese comes out wet.
• Can you freeze milk? Yes — Yes — leave headspace for expansion and shake it hard after thawing.
• Can you freeze eggs? It depends — Not in the shell. Beat them first, or freeze whites on their own.
• Can you freeze bread? Yes — Yes — freezing is the best way to store bread, far better than the fridge.
• Can you freeze bananas? Yes — Yes — peel and slice them first, because the peel turns black and welds itself on.
• Can you freeze cooked rice? Yes — Yes, and freezing quickly is the safest way to keep leftover rice.
• Can you freeze raw chicken twice? It depends — Only if it thawed in the fridge and never got above 4 °C (40 °F).
• Can you freeze breast milk? Yes — Yes — freeze it flat in bags, and use within six months for best quality.
• Can you freeze avocado? It depends — Yes, but only as a purée — frozen slices go grey and watery.
• Can you freeze soup? It depends — Yes for most soups; cream, milk and potato-based ones separate or go grainy.
• Can you freeze butter? Yes — Yes — butter freezes better than almost anything else in the fridge.
• Can you freeze cooked pasta? Yes — Yes — undercook it slightly and toss it in oil first, or it thaws into a solid block.