Can You Store Plastic Wine Bottles In A Wine Fridge?

When planning for a dinner party or get-together with friends or family, one may consider the use of plastic bottles to store their wine instead of risking spillages or smashings.

A common question for many newcomers to the wine storage industry is if they can or should store plastic wine bottles in their wine fridge and throughout this blog, we aim to answer this question for any new wine connoisseurs.

It is not advised to store your wine in plastic bottles in a wine fridge (integrated wine cooler, freestanding wine fridge, etc) for a plethora of different reasons, keep reading to find out more.

 

Considerations For Plastic Bottled Wine

There is plenty to consider when switching your wine storage over to plastic bottles instead of glass - more than you might expect. Below we have listed some of the key considerations that you must make when you have bought your wine and are thinking about using plastic bottles to store them.

 

Quality of Wine

The first thing for you to think about is if this will affect the quality of your wine. The short answer is yes!

While plastic bottles can store wine for around 6 months without losing any of its flavours, after this landmark it is likely that your wine will begin oxidising causing your wine to lose much of its flavour and smell as well as overall quality.

It is also important to note that some plastic bottles may come with the risk of BPAs which are known to disrupt some hormonal bodily functions.

 

Why Might You Want To Store Wine in Plastic Bottles?

As we stated previously, the main reason why someone would want to make the switch from glass bottles to plastic is to avoid smashing the glass. When using plastic wine bottles, there is absolutely zero risk of smashing, which is why many people opt for plastic bottles, especially for the holiday season!

This, however, is not to be advised due to the fact that there is still much quality to be lost from using plastic bottles over a long period of time.

 

Environmental Impact

Plastic bottles have been the subject of much debate among people across the world relating to their necessity compared to the damage that they produce after use.

Plastic lasts for many years after it is thrown away, around 450 years to be more precise, this has led to many landfills across the world being filled to the brim with plastics and plastic packaging which of course is incredibly harmful to the environment.

On top of this, plastics are already being created faster than it is being recycled, with just 10% of the total number of plastics in the UK being recycled, meaning that the general usefulness of plastic is being outweighed by the sheer amount that is being wasted.

Therefore the environmental impacts of using plastic wine bottles cannot be overstated and should be a consideration for anyone deciding if plastic bottles are suited to their needs.

 

Appearance

How your wine looks is one of the most luxurious parts of wine drinking as it is what gives the feel of opulence and classiness to your dinner parties and get-togethers. Therefore, using glass bottles delivers much more grace to your wine tasting and can make your overall experience much greater.

Plastic wine bottles are very cheap and are therefore considered not classy by the general community. While this may not be a major issue for most, this can be something too many people that would completely turn plastic bottles away for this reason.

 

Can You Store Plastic Wine Bottles In A Wine Cooler?

In short, yes - you can. However, we advise against it for the reasons listed above. Put simply, wine doesn’t taste as good when stored in a plastic bottle. It is best stored in a corked glass bottle. Plastic bottles are also less likely to feature UV protection; something that green wine bottles do.

 

Why You Should Avoid Storing Fine Wine in Plastic Wine Bottles

Drinking wine from a plastic bottle is fine and will not affect your wine-drinking experience as long as this is done in the first few days after you have purchased your wine. Storing wine, however, is another story entirely as this greatly affects your wine’s taste and aroma qualities.

This is due to the plastic that these bottles are made of - they allow air to get inside the bottles and cause the wine to oxidise which can cause a host of different issues for your wine as follows:

• Your wine may begin to lose the fruity smell that people have grown so accustomed to with wine and would start to have more of a stale smell
• The colour of your wine will also become an off-putting colour, with red wines turning a darker red or brown colour while white wine may turn off-white or even gold.
• Beyond this, your wines will also lack taste and flavour quality, this will lack everything that you have been looking for in your wine.

These issues have been attempted to be solved by including some extra added chemicals to stop the process of oxidisation from occurring, which may sound positive, but these have their drawbacks.

While not directly linked to causing harm to humans when they are consumed, there are still doubts among many about the true safety of these chemicals.

 

Conclusion

To summarise, while it is plausible for you to drink your wine out of a plastic bottle, we would not recommend the long-term storage of wine in plastic bottles. One thing to note is that the rules we have stated throughout this blog also apply to many other alcohols such as beer, rum and gin along with most types of liqueur.

On top of this, if you do choose to put your wine into new plastic bottles then it is incredibly important to remember that these should be drunk very soon after your purchase and not stored in your wine fridge for very long periods of time.