Basis for 55 degreesF optimal storage temperature

No, I have not done a search on Google. However, I have minded the question for some time now while reading about wine. All authors seem to have taken for granted the idea that there *is* an optimal storage temperature, somewhere between 50F and 60F.

As an aside, I am inclined to do a non-scientific survey of climate-controlled wine storage facilities in the US inquiring as to their storage temperature (and humidity) and as to why they picked that particular temperature.

The 55F figure in the original message (and thread breastle) is not set in stone. I am inquiring generically about the basis for setting the "optimal" storage temperature, whatever figure is proffered to be so.

Yes, storing wine at its freezing or boiling temperatures is intuitively and obviously not a good idea. However, has anybody bothered to compare wine stored at, say, 50F, 55F and 60F?

My concern is with the dictum (or is it gospel?) that wine should be between 50 and 60F. My hunch, and that's all it is, is that there is very little evidence backing up the proposition that temperature X is optimal.

Thus the query: show me the data!