Many regular wine drinkers find that half a bottle of wine with your evening meal is the correct amount to drink especially in the absence of a companion to finish the bottle.  Drinking in moderation (two glasses with your main meal) means that you have to deal with the preservation of left-over wine.  So it seems quite reasonable that you should keep your unfinished wine for your next meal.  For how long will that wine keep in the condition that the winemaker intended it to be enjoyed?

We know that once we pull that cork, it is the point of no return because the cork has been separated from the bottle; the wine is exposed to air (oxygen) and has the potential of creating great harm to the wine. Like an open door aging. Oxygen will hasten to the onslaught of volatile acidity that will eventually turn that wine into vinegar. 

There are steps that we can take to slow or prevent this occurrence from happening! There are of course, a few considerations we need to be aware about the condition which the wine is in at that moment when we pull the cork. 

The first one is the age of the wine. A young wine (one to fi ve years of age) will benefi t from the oxygen at first. Also decanting, the process of pouring the wine into a decanter to soften the tannins and remove the sediment, will improve the wine at fi rst. But very old wines (20-50 years of age) are more fragile and have to be handled cautiously, because they will rapidly collapse and die. 

It happened to me with a 1936 Simi Cabernet Sauvignon. A great bouquet upon opening but less than a minute later, no bouquet and tasted like sand dust. An old wine will not last until the next day. 

But for the younger wines there are steps we can take to prolong the flavor to the next day and beyond. 

The Refrigerator: We know for a fact that by storing food stuff and fruit in the refrigerator their lives will be prolonged. Cooling down and slowing the chemical process of oxidation, and we can lengthen the life of that wine. A wine will oxidize much slower in a refrigerator than at room temperature. At room temperature a red wine opened will last at best three days and almost six days in the refrigerator. 

White wines will not last as long as red wines. There is also another solution: Decant the unfinished bottle of 750 ml into a half bottle (375 ml) and recork it. There is little contact with oxygen this way. 

Vacuuming: This method has been used for quite a long time, but it is not a suggested method because it leaves the wine flat and dull. There are many reasons for this but my suggestion still goes back to the half-bottle preservation system. 

Nitrogen: It has been also touted as the preservation system to use but there is no proof that it benefits the wine. 

Sparkling wines: Here the odds are much better in your favor. Ideally when we drink sparkling wines, it is for a special occasion. And usually there is more than one person participating in the occasion so if there is some sparkling wine or champagne left over, we can freely refrigerate it with the original cork. But it is usually better to use a pressure cap that will help retain the bubbles. Because the bubbles (CO2) or carbon dioxide act as a preservative. We have very little change in the flavor of sparkling wines. But do not wait too long in finishing off that remaining sparking wine at any occasion, even for breakfast. 

Conclusion: After this long discourse on how to store an opened bottle, I hope you will learn something. You can drink unspoiled wine for times to come. You should refrigerate all wines you drink (red, white, sparkling, fortified) to prolong their life even after being opened. You should also try to figure out how much wine you are going to drink for that dinner or occasion so that no opened wine is left over. 

Remember that red, fortified wines should be served at room temperature. White wines slightly cooler than room temperature. White wines slightly cooler than red but not chilled (58 degrees Fahrenheit). You are covering up the flavors of the wine through experimentation.

I have found these practices to work best. 

Angelo Tavernaro
Master Sommelier

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