Keeping An Opened Bottle Of Wine

Once a bottle of wine is opened the process of oxidation begins. Oxidation is when oxygen in the air comes in contact with the wine and begins to eat away at the flavor and aroma of the wine. Over time, an opened bottle of wine will begin to go bad, but the process will turn a great tasting wine into a sour tasting wine with flavor notes that can at times make it unbearable to drink.

In order to avoid serving bad tasting wine, and drinking it yourself, there are a few ways to slow the oxidation process, but eventually all opened wines will go bad.

Most general rules of thumb are to only save an opened bottle of wine for no longer than three days. Three days tends to be a pretty good rule, but it might be best to error on the safe side with a two day rule. Before you try different methods for keeping an opened wine, start by planning your wine needs.

If you are having a party on a Saturday night and are planning on having a nice dinner at home the following week, it can be a good idea to plan that nice dinner for Monday or Tuesday so you can use any remaining wine. Before you open a bottle of wine that you know you won’t use all of, think to yourself about when the next chance will be for you to finish the bottle.

Most wines can keep somewhat well after being re-corked and stored in the refrigerator. Its important to properly open your wine so that you can slice the end of a cork to be refitted on. However, the best way to reseal wine is by buying a wine stopper that can completely seal off the leftover wine from oxygen.

If you store the wine in a refrigerator its important to do so in one that does not have severe shaking or vibrations. This will accelerate the process of the wine going bad.

Different wines will oxidate differently but the ones that fight off the oxidation process the best appear to be Sauternes, Ports and Sherries. Then again, the best way to prevent wine from going bad is to drink it all. Safely of course.

Related posts:

1. Storing Wine in the Refrigerator is a Temptation Worth Avoiding You’ve probably heard that storing wine in your refrigerator is...
2. Merryvale Profile 1993 Wine Review The 1993 Merryvale Profile that we had last night was...
3. What To Look For When Buying Organic Wine Going green has long been an American craze and its...