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List of Posts
4-6-25 -  Spring in the Vineyard: What Work Takes Place?
12-30-24 - Complete Guide to Properly Cellaring Wine and Aging Wine
10-9-24 - Nine Things You Didn't Know About The Fall Grape Harvest
4-1-24 - Blending to Improve Homemade Wines

2-7-24 - Winter Harvest and Ice Wine Production
12-31-23 - Sparkling Wines
11-6-23 - Filtering White Wine
​9-18-23 - The Great Cork Debate

8-26-23 - How do Winemakers know when grapes are ready to harvest?
6-25-23 - The best red wines light enough to drink in the summer.
3-12-23 - Make homemade wine, follow the cycle.

​3-12-23 - Home made wine, or "How I became a Winemaker"! 
1-24-23 - Winter in the Vineyard:  What happens to vines during 
winter.
​12-13-22 - How much do wine fermentation temperatures matter?
11-27-22 - December wine racking
10-30-22 - November wine season

10-4-22 - Making wine from grapes vs kits
8-15-22 - Harvest 101: What happens during the harvest season?
6-6-22 - 10 Summer wines perfect for the season
4-13-22 - How to tase wine
4-5-22 -To age or not to age your homemade wine?
​3-23-22 - Avoid sunlight on your wine!
3-17-22 - Time to prune!  & grapevine bleeding


Avoid sunlight on your wine!

3/23/2022

1 Comment

 
Light Strike: Why Wine and Sunlight Don't Mix
​by Holly Borntrager

​Unless you want its fruity and floral aromas to become those of cooked cabbage, wet cardboard, and wet dog, make sure your wine and sunlight stay far away from each other. Keep reading for more on this and what else you can do to protect your wine.
Picture
​Does Sunlight Effect Wine?
Did you know that direct sunlight exposure can change a wonderful bottle of wine to nasty swill? This unfortunate phenomenon is light strike.
Light strike occurs when the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays flood the bottle. This excites the wine’s naturally occurring riboflavin (Vitamin B2) and pantothenic acid (Vitamin B5).
These energized molecules then react with naturally present amino acids. This yields sulfur-containing compounds that we can smell at very low levels, and they stink!
3 hours of sun exposure is all it takes for wine damage to occur in clear bottles. Wine in green bottles takes only 18 hours. Be mindful of where a store has placed its wine before purchasing.
Choose a wine that is not near a window or exposed to the sun.
But is there another solution for fighting off those UV rays?

The color of the bottle greatly affects UV exposure.
​
Bulbs & Bottles: More Wine-Saving Methods
Who would have thought that the color of the bottle makes such a difference?
As proof, a study showed that amber glass, not the winemaker’s usual choice, offers near TOTAL protection from UV rays. Green glass offers moderate protection, and clear glass very little.
Historically, green glass was the easiest to produce in large quantities. It predates any understanding of light strike, thus making it the most common today. Clear glass is a newer choice that offers practically no protection.
This is a real shame, as most of us like to see the beautiful shades of white, yellow, green, and rose within.

Storing expensive bottles under fluorescent lights can cause light strike too. Be wary of bottles displayed under non-LED lighting.
Lastly, if you want to get technical and put a stop to UV damage altogether, install LED bulbs. This is a great solution, as they do not emit any UV rays.
It’s Not Impossible!
Keeping wine and sunlight separate might seem tough. But as we’ve seen, there are tons of methods for keeping your wine delicious and sun-free!
Protecting your wine from UV rays, considering the bottle’s color, and even installing LED bulbs will prolong the life and flavor of your wine.
Do you have any tried-and-true methods for keeping UV rays away from your wine? Let us know!

1 Comment
Ron Fratoe
3/23/2022 09:01:18 pm

I unfortunately do not have a traditional wine cellar. We sacrificed our garage to make a winemaking area / wine storage. I have some sunlight that filters in through the windows. We solved that by making carboy covers to protect the wine.

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  • Home
  • About
  • PHOTOS
  • CLUB NEWS
  • Members Only
  • WINE LINKS
  • SOCIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
  • WINEMAKING EDUCATION
  • Member Recipes
  • Member Wine Label Art
  • WINE BLOG
  • Memorial Wall
  • WINE EQUIPMENT FOR SALE