Open wine shelf life.
 

Assume a recorked 1/2 bottle of red, at room temp, how long?

Better not risk it. Its safer to just drink the whole bottle. At least thats what I tell the cop.

lol, good luck with that:D

But seriously, about how long.....and if you go to long you risk what? bad taste? Bacteria? What?

Red wine oxidizes very quickly, some overnight, others in just a few days. The only exception is Greek red, which is aged in a particular barrel that seems to help slow oxidation of the wine.

White wines do not seem to have the same issues.

What is the penalty? I'm having a glass of a Pinot I had a few nights ago and it tastes great.

Don't they make a pump that removes the air from the opened bottle, creating a vacuum?

Then there is this little doohicky. I'm starting to hear good things about it:

http://www.dansdata.com/wineclip.htm

Oh just ddrink it in a dauy.

That's what i've just done wth this nice 04 Merlot I opened las tnight.

FYI, I only dcrink the big botttles during the week.

We nee dot discuss how I get som eof that killer Pinot you had the other night.

I'll make it worth your while.

I have one of those vacumn pumps that evacuates the air from the bottle, using a special rubber cork/valve. Then refrigerate the bottle. Works pretty well, an opened bottle seems to be drinkable for a week. It's not exactly at its best after a week - a quite nice tasty red has become an okay table wine - but it is drinkable.

I know someone who uses pressurized nitrogen to do the same thing - replace the air in the bottle with nitrogen. But the vacumn is cheaper.

Re: Open wine shelf life.
 

It depends entirely on the wine.

Rule of thumb: the younger the wine the less likely it is to spoil quickly. That explains why your Pinot Noir still tastes good.

Conversely, do not re-cork a vintage Bordeaux.

fill half empty bottle with clean glass marbles 'til wine level reaches back up to cork.....no extra air in bottle to allow oxidation. voila.

Onlycafe, interesting suggestion... must try that sometime, if I can get marbles to fit down neck of bottle...

Have tried vacuum pumps, seal usually not good enough.

Best preservation method I've found so far is - brace yourself - freeze the leftovers.

Allowed to thaw, there is no degradation in taste that I've been able to detect.

Disclaimer: oxalic acid crystals will precipitate out once thawed... you may want to decant before drinking, or pour carefully once you approach the lees...

http://www.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/fles.gif

If the taste brings no frown,
you must drink it down!

Vacuvin. Buy one. Under $20.

I always have a red 'day' wine (as opposed to a good one) open on the counter - not refridgerated. With just a cork, the taste is very different on day 2 & by day 3 or 4, it's trash. My vacuvin keeps it alive for up to 7 days. The bouquet is gone after the first day but the juice still lives.

Ian

Thanks, that's what I was hoping.

Yep...all pumps are not created equal...this one really creates a vacuum.

http://www.winestuff.com/acatalog/Wine_Saver_Giftpack__1_Pump_Black_2_Stoppers_.html ?gclid=CL3NwoCo-YkCFQ8RgQodnnx1Qg

I've had reds that oxidized so badly that the color changed into a reddish brown, and the taste is awful.

I have several types of wine that are already 3 to 4 years old and expected to improve in the bottle for another 3-4 years, and drinkable for another 10 years. Those are consumed completely without recorking.

I seldom decant wines, but there's no harm in it, and some wine tastes better decanted.

Interesting solution. Instead of doing this EVERY time, however, wouldn't it makes sense to half-fill an empty bottle with marbles and use that for all your future wine-storage needs?

I work in an Italian resturant (the perfect job for putting yourself through grad school), and we often open bottles of wine that we don't use often. Sure, lots of people drink Ruffino Chianti or any number of merlots, but sometimes we must open a bottle of Allegrini, Reserva Ducale, or Syrah and let it sit for over a week. Most of the time, the wine still tastes great. IT seems to be the cheaper wines that go more quickly... of course, we don't have any vintages beyond 2004 in the resturant.

Forget the marbles - get some 1/2 size and 1/4 size bottles!:D

Maybe we should patent these ideas and film an infomercial?

"Tired of this situation? [clip of dinner guests disguested by ruined wine, and hosts humiliated] Bordering on alcoholism because you finish every bottle of wine you open? [clip of young woman passed out on a recliner, empty wine bottle on the floor, as her kids attempt unsuccessfully to wake her] Well, we have the solution!"

Get your federally approved and subsidized clean glass marbles to alleviate this problem. See your county Public Health Clinic now.

Right next to the free condoms.

Must be careful though, the whole thing can back-fire.

Tempted a Lass into my lair with the promise of a fine Bordeaux. As I poured some of the finest vintage she accused me of stealing a bottle of pedestrian red from the airlines - with a screw top at that!

Thwarted again!http://www.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/wat5.gif

I rarely drink wine, and my girlfriend will typically only have a glass or two at a time. I think I'll ask her if I can get an additional g/f in order to eliminate the problem of having leftover wine...

I can't help with this, I have never re corked a bottle of wine.

I'm often very surprised when I buy a good, moderately-expensive bottle of wine, and it has a screw top.

Screw tops are cheaper to produce. While I would expect most enthusiasts to complain, I think that we will end up with wines with mostly screw tops b/c of this.

Fortunately for me, some of my favorite wines are screw tops. Besides, it's what's inside that counts! :)

That's true, but there are many other closure types other than screw caps and corks. Practical Winery & vineyard magazine (July/August 2006) had a feature about the various types. There are more than a dozen.

For example: http://zork.com.au/

Someone (maybe consumer reports) tested gas you shoot into the bottle and the pumps and said they don't really help.

I have a half size storage bottle that I can pour the remaining wine into and refrigerate. This seems to keep red wine decent for about two days.

Screw top? That's high class.

I drink the stuff that comes in a BOX.

I work with someone who on their Target wedding gift registry registered for a 1.5 Liter Box Cabernet, and a 1.5 Liter Box Chardonnay.

And this is why you don't order expensive wines by the glass, or at least ask how long the bottle's been open for. :)

/ jOhan

:D

+1

Before the bag in a box era, I used to have a glass of red each night. Put the cork back on until it was finished. Could take over a week. No problems.

Nowadays it takes the same time to finish a whole box...

So how many glasses do you actually get from a bottle, my wife makes me share the bottle, I have a glass while I am making dinner, one while I eat and a little while I clean the table and do the dishes. Is this wrong? Should I get more because I am doing the work?

You sound like God´s gift to women. ;)

How does she reciprocate ?

Boxes and screw tops are the way of the future. You can actually get very decent wine in box now.

What about some kind of lock down stopper, like they have on Grolsch beer.

http://www.csi.uottawa.ca/ftppub/beermats/grolsch.jpg

She bought my car for me, an older one, 89 Targa.
And she sleeps with me. I don't really like sharing the bottle but I guess it is a small price to pay.

That is all well then. A more than fair price.

Prime candidate here. Unless we're having a dinner party, my wife will have 1 half glass and I'll have 2-3; leaving 1.5-2 glasses. Every damn time.

So I've got both the nitrogen shooter thing and the pump device--the nitro thing absolutely does not work. Pump thing seems to at least double the life and it does depend on how old the wine is--definitely worth the cost and buy some extra rubber corks while you're at it.

Don Plumley should chime in at some point.

Jack

You said "get more" heh-heh.:eek:

Lots of good suggestions already. Especially those about finishing the bottle!

Here's the summary: White wines, hours. Good Reds, maybe a day or two. I just shove the cork back in the wine, or use a stopper, and stick it in a cool place on the kitchen counter. If we don't finish it within a day or so, I pour it down the sink. Life is too short to drink spoiled wine.

Oxygen is essential to open up a wine - that's why you swirl it around a glass. I like seeing how the wine changes in the glass over the course of dinner. Some wines are "tight" - the aromas and flavors have yet to fully open up, and really benefit from a few minutes in a decanter to aerate. Decanters are underutilized.

But like so many other things, too much oxygen is a bad thing. We really protect against oxygen in the winemaking process. Once made, different people have differing levels of sensitivity to oxidation. Our winemaker has an amazing nose for oxidation. Different wines oxidize at different rates - big tannic reds oxidize much slower than fresh whites.

Oxidation is also a wine fault, usually caused by a bad closure (and that will get me on an entirely different discussion, so I'll stop there). If you are not sure what an oxidized wine tastes like, pour a glass and leave it out on the counter for a couple of days. Yuk. BTW, Madeira, Sherry and Tawny Ports get their character from Oxidation.

Anyway, the act of opening and pouring a bottle of wine introduces enough oxygen to for oxidation to start. So the only sure fire way to prevent oxidation is to use an inert gas to deliver the wine. $pendy though.

So the implication is that any of the other techniques: Vacuvin, Nitrogen layer or half-bottle really are not doing much to prevent oxidation since when you poured that first glass, oxygen was introduced into the wine. There are arguments that the vacuvin might actually damage the wine a bit by stripping out some of the aromatic components. And spraying the nitrogen to form a layer on the wine isn't really doing much since the O2 is already in the wine from pouring. I've just talked myself into throwing out our nitrogen and vacuvin...

The suggestions to re-cork the wine and stick in a cool place (or the fridge) are probably the best way to delay oxidation. Store the bottle standing up to reduce the air exchange surface.

BTW, wine in a box typically do not suffer from oxidation. The bag is an airtight closure and no air is introduced into the wine when it is poured. There are some better wines becoming available in a box.

And be cautious about ordering wines by the glass - ask if they were opened earlier in the day - not last night. If the bartender can't answer, reconsider.

Time to enjoy another glass!