You’ve opened the bottle – the countdown’s begun – you have to drink it before it runs out of steam. How much time do we have? How to prolong the life of an opened bottle?
Storing open wine
What happens to open wine?
As soon as the bottle is uncorked, air begins to get into it, and along with it – oxygen. It is oxygen that begins to rapidly “age” the wine by oxidation reactions.
Nothing dangerous or unhealthy happens to open wine. It just becomes uninteresting, losing everything we paid for: aromas, taste, bubbles (for sparkling ones). Further, wine becomes the wine vinegar, but not soon.
During the first hours, open wine can even benefit from active contact with oxygen. Sometimes wine is deliberately aerated to achieve a better impression of the wine in the glass.
Actively twist wine in a spacious glass for ten seconds and compare the sensations with the first sip from an open bottle.
How fast to drink?
Since oxygen is the key here, the storage life is influenced by the area of contact of the wine with air. And if you leave the bottle open, the constant supply of fresh air will destroy the flavour faster.
Another condition for faster spoiling is the ratio of the area of wine that contacts the air to the volume of the drink. Thus, half a bottle of wine will last longer than a quarter of a bottle.
The refrigerator is relevant for sparkling wine: there it loses bubbles more slowly. Quiet white wines are also refrigerated to drink cold. As for red wines – dry or sweet – the refrigerator is not important.
Optimal terms for dry wines to store after opening:
red – up to two days,
white – up to one and a half.
By adhering to these rules, you will be drinking wine in its best form. Further, the bouquet begins to wither at an accelerated rate.
The maximum time to enjoy an open bottle of wine:
- Dry wine in a decanter
Deliberate saturation of the wine with oxygen in the decanter opens the bouquet within 30-120 minutes.You shouldn’t leave the wine unfinished in the decanter.
But if you do this, then it will fizzle out in a day. For White, the terms are two times less.
- Half a bottle of dry wine (under the cork)
Red: up to four days
Pink: up to three days
White: up to two days
Sparkling wine: up to one and a half days
- Half a bottle of sweet wine (under the cork) – week
They live longer than others:
– Very sour white wine
– Very strong red wine
– Aged champagne
How to keep wine for a longer time?
Shut off the oxygen. Preferably right away. So that the fresh air meets the wine only in the glass. But it is impossible to do without special devices: as the bottle is opened – new portions of air will enter the bottle.
It remains to plug the bottle with a cork after each refilled glass. Sparkling and whites should be refrigerated. Then the shelf life of an open bottle mentioned above will be relevant.
There are tips to pour the remaining wine into a smaller container to increase the wine-to-air ratio. The advice is not very good, because by pouring, you aerate it. Doing this makes sense only if wine is left on the bottom and you are not going to finish it drinking soon.
If circumstances force you to drink a bottle of dry wine for a week or longer, you will have to get special accessories. Of the simple ones – vacuum plugs. There are different kinds of them.
[2 PACK]Wine Bottle Stoppers,Real Vacuum
But their common disadvantage is the passage of new portions of air into the bottle during filling.
Another invention for the opened bottles of wine:
Coravin Model Two – Wine Preservation System – Bottle Opener, Needle Pourer, Aerator, and Wine Saver – Graphite – Includes 2 Argon Gas Capsules and Wine Needle
