How Long That Open Bottle Of Wine Really Lasts Plus More Burning Questions About Wine You Were Afraid To Ask
Wine is highly subjective. Most people know what they like and what they dont after the first sip. But when it comes to vino 101, do you even have a clue? Whats the proper temperature to serve wine, for example? And how should be used and wine be stored if you dont have access to a cellar? Just how long can you keep that open bottle before its undrinkable? If youve asked yourself any of the above at some point, youre not alone, and were here to help, along with Bob Bertheau, head winemaker at Chateau Ste. Michelle. Get ready to pour a glass in honor of your new #SommStatus.
Brit + Co: At what temperature should wine should be served?
Bob Bertheau: In general, white, rosé, and sparkling wines are served at cooler temperatures than red wines. I personally like aromatic white varietals like Riesling to be served nice and cold, around 45 degrees. For richer, rounder chardonnays, I like them slightly warmer at 55 to 58 degrees. Most red wines should be served in the low 60 degrees so they can warm up slightly in the glass. Often red wines are served too warm to begin with.
B+C: How long can wine be left in the refrigerator?
B+C: Do you have to serve white wine with fish and red wine with meat?
B+C: Whats the deal with uncorking wine and letting it breathe?
B+C: If a wine has a twist-off cap, does that mean it is of lesser quality than wine with a cork?
B+C: Whats the proper way to taste wine? Are we all doing it wrong?
Dont: Store Your Wine Upright For Long Term
For the same reason its recommended to store wine on its side is why it is not recommended to store it upright. When your bottle is upright, the wine is not hitting the cork. The cork will then begin to dry out, resulting in a musty, malodorous wine. With that said, it is okay to store your wine upright for a short amount of time, which is why many some convenient or liquor stores can get away with it they are banking on a timely sale of the bottles. I wouldnt recommend keeping bottles upright for more than a few weeks.
Put Your Wine In The Freezer
Some say this is a dangerous thing to do, but its actually fine as long as you control timing of the process. Freezing wine is horrible cooling it down in the freezer is just fine. Use a loud timer : 15 minutes for a mild chill, half an hour for major chilling results.
This is also not the most advisable thing to do on very fine bottles, but is fine for everyday wines.
But of course, to really be ready to sip all summer, always keep a bottle of wine in your fridge for unexpected reasons to share a refreshing glass. Room allowing, keep one bottle of white, one of rosé, and dont forget the bubbly!
Julien is the founder of Social Vignerons winner of the 2015 Best New Wine Blog from the Wine Blog Awards. Follow him on Vivino and on .
Read Also: Stella Rosa Green Apple Review
How Long Does It Take To Chill Wine In A Salt
Generally, you only need about 15-20 minutes to cool down white wine in an ice bucket with salt and red wines take a mere 5-10 minutes. If you leave the wine in an ice bath for over 30 minutes it wont likely freeze, but it will be too cold to really enjoy drinking it. If the temperature of wine is too cold, you wont be able pick up on some of the nuances of flavour.
In North America people tend to drink their white wines too cold and red wines too warm, which means its much harder to distinguish between some of the lovely flavour and aroma characteristics.
A Wine Growler Can Be Very Convenient
The most convenient way to keep wine chilled all day at the beach is by using a wine growler. A wine growler is just like an insulated wine bottle that keeps your wine cold all day. Think of it like a thermos for wine. It is similar to a wine flask but youll want to make sure your wine growler has a double wall structure so that your wine is truly insulated from the outside temperatures.
A wine growler eliminates any worries of taking wine glassbottles to a no glass zone like the beach or the pool. It conveniently fitsinside your beach bag and frees you from having to drag a heavy cooler around withyou to and from the beach just to have a nicely chilled and refreshing glassof wine ).
Also Check: Wine Labels For Bridesmaids
Not Your Average Ice Cube
Use an unconventional ice cube to keep your drink from getting watered down, and to add some additional flavor. A fan-favorite is adding frozen grapes to wine, a very full circle way to chill it down. Sometimes I will add frozen berries to my white wine for an easy, light “cocktail” that is a perfect companion for making dinner or sitting on the beach. Switch up the fruits depending on your preference. Maybe try some frozen pineapple or mango, or herb-infused ice cubes, and get creative with it.
Dont: Keep Your Wine In Your Kitchen Fridge Long Term
Many people think the way to remedy the temperature conundrum is to keep their wine in the refrigerator, but unless you are using a wine refrigerator, this can be equally harmful. Your average kitchen refrigerator is not only too cold for your wine, stunting its development, but it also dries out the wines cork. Have you ever left an uncovered tomato in your fridge? Notice, how the tomato shrivels up in the span of just a day or so? This is because, unlike a wine refrigerator, your kitchen refrigerator removes humidity as it cools. Corks must remain moist in order to do their job properly. A dried out cork leads to a musty smelling, corked wine.
Read Also: Where To Buy Troublemaker Wine
How To Keep Your Wine Cool
For most beverages, temperature and position during storage dont affect the flavor or integrity of the drink. But seriously, for the most part, it doesnt matter whether hot or cold, your soda wont spoil, and water might taste better chilled, but it doesnt hurt it any to be warm. The same cant be said for wine, however. Wine touts a reputation for culture and class, so I expect we shouldnt be amazed that it has to be discriminated. From a wine becoming corked to the integrity of the flavor changing, you have to make sure that you take note of a few things so it is still what it should be when you actually open a bottle during best Niagara falls tours.
For permanent storage at home, you really would like to obtain a wine refrigerator where you can set the temperature. A regular refrigerator is too cold to store wine in for a substantial period of time, and having a fridge that is tailored specifically for wine storage will keep all your vintages at the ideal temp for the duration of their shelf life.
If youre on a wine tour and end up purchasing several bottles to take home, how do you keep the wine from being altered by the temperature in the car when the bottles are lying in the sun? If youre going on a picnic excursion to the lake for the afternoon, whats the best way to keep the wine chilled until youre ready to open the bottle?
Pour It In Wine Glasses And Refrigerate
This chilling method requires that you open the wine bottle first, so if you don’t mind doing so, this could be a solid solution. Simply pour the wine into a wine glass and before placing it in the fridge, cover with plastic wrap to seal in the aromas, minimize oxidation, and keep out any fridge orders.
Since a wine glass is a lot thinner than a bottle of wine, it’ll chill a lot faster. In this case, that means your wine will be ready in about 30 minutes instead of the average 90 minutes it would take to chill an entire bottle in the refrigerator.
Pro tip: Place the filled glasses on a shelf toward the back of the fridge rather than on the door. Not only will this keep the glasses from moving and potentially spilling, but it’ll help regulate the temperature better .
Read Also: Will You Be My Bridesmaid Wine
Keep A Stainless Steel Chiller In The Freezer To Cool White Wines & Light Bodied Red Wines
This might not be the most efficient way to get white wine cold, but its great for light bodied red wines and it will keep your white wines cold after theyre already at the right temperature. Dont use a large ice bucket for this one. You want the thinner style chiller you often find in restaurants that almost hugs the bottle. If you keep it in the freezer, the stainless steel will be ice cold and ready for use. Just put the bottle in the chiller and leave it on the table or close by so its handy when youre ready to pour another glass.
Submerging The Wine In Ice Water
The recommendation that both Halpin-Healy and Blonder put forth also happens to be the one that sommeliers use at restaurants: sticking a bottle of wine in ice water. Water is a more efficient thermal conductor than air, at about 25 times the rate.
There is one thing to keep in mind with this method. People, somms included, always forget to immerse bottles fully, Chang writes, noting that most champagne sinks and ice buckets are too short and small. So its almost frozen on the bottom and warm on the top. The first glass poured is warm.
She recommends filling a container about two-thirds with ice, then adding some water , and tossing in a handful of Kosher salt, which lowers the waters freezing point , on top. You can swaddle the bottle in plastic wrap to protect the labelanother sommelier trick. Still, Blonder says youll probably need half of a one-pound box of kosher salt to drop the temperature from the 30s to the 10s, so he recommends skipping the salt and just using ice water in a lobster pot. The key either way is lots of ice. Without salt, it should still take only about 15 minutes.
Science Says: This is the fastest method for cooling a bottle of wine quickly, but also a bit of a rigmarole.
Read Also: How To Make A Pallet Wine Rack
How To Keep Wine Cool At The Beach
Picture this: Warm sun, soft sand, waves rolling in, and you enjoying it all on a comfy lounge chair, sipping a nice Chilean white wine. Ahh, perfection! The only thing that could ruin it is a bottle of sun-heated, warm wine. Yuck!
Here are a few ways to keep your wine cool on a hot day:
There are lots of options for ensuring that your Natura chardonnay or other favorite Chilean white wine stays nice and cold while youre at the beach. A glass of delicious, cold wine while you soak up the sun and listen to the waves that truly is perfection!
How To Keep Wine Cool On Hot Summer Days
Gord Stimmelltimer
As a wine lover, one of the only kind things I can say about Canadian winter is that its great for chilling white wines. Just open the back sliding door and stick the bottle in the nearest snowdrift.
But come summer, chilling a white to its tasty best, and keeping it cold as it is consumed, is a trickier proposition.
Personally, I keep three bottle sleeves in the icebox. Just snug them down over the bottle, and the white is cool in about 20 minutes. Its great for friends showing up suddenly on your doorstep.
Sure, you can buy one of those state of the art, LED temperature gauges, fill it with ice and watch the bottle rotate thingamabobs. However, they are $100 or so and noisy.
The sleeves run about $12 or less. Or, if you want to be avant garde, get one of those trendy icicles, which you keep in the freezer and insert into your bottle to keep it chilled while you sip. They are very cool. Just watch your eyes when you bend over the bottle.
If you want to make a flourish, especially if chilling sparkling wines, sure get out the ice bucket and plunge the bottle into it for a half-hour. But add water to the ice cubes. This is crucial. All those angled ice cubes do not make full contact with the bottle. Add water, and your bottle is totally covered.
A warm white? Lets just say some wine judges like to taste white wines warm because any flaws are plainly revealed in the process. Personally, I judge whites when chilled like consumers drink them.
You May Like: Purchasing Wine Grapes
Do: Keep Your Wine Chilled
Yes, the average room temperature is too warm to both serve and store your wine. The warmer the ambient temperature, the quicker the wine will age and go bad. If youve ever left a bottle of wine in your car during the summer and then wondered why it tasted like pure alcohol or maybe even a little vinegar-like, you know what heat can do to a bottle. That is an extreme case, of course, but room temperature wines are not given the chance to fully express themselves, tasting duller than if chilled.
Do You Refrigerate Wine After Opening It
Up until this point, we’ve focused on refrigerating wine that has yet to be opened. But what about open bottles? Do you refrigerate those? The answer is yes. Here’s what you need to know in a nutshell:
- Sparkling wine will last 1-2 days after opening
- Full-bodied white wine will last 3-5 days
- Light white and rosé wine generally last 3-5 days
- Red wine lasts about 3-5 days some even taste better a day after opening
- Fortified wine will last at least a month after you open the bottle
For more details on how long you can keep wine , don’t miss our guide on preventing wine from going bad.
Also Check: How To Make A Glass Out Of A Wine Bottle
How Long Does Wine Last
Both red and white wines will stay good for up to one year unopened, while champagne and sparkling wine lasts about six months in the pantry. And how long is a bottle of wine good for after opening? The acid in white wines, such as rieslings and sauvignon blancs, helps keep them fresh after opening for about three days, whereas most reds should be finished in a day or two, says Andrea Robinson, a master sommelier and the author of Great Wine Made Simple. Champagne and sparkling wine on the other hand will only last one day in the fridge.
To make opened wine last closer to a week, remove as much air as you can with a device like the Rabbit vacuum pump, moistening the stopper first for the tightest seal, advises Michael Aaron, chairman of Sherry-Lehmann Wines & Spirits in New York City.
“You can easily get a quality vacuum pump for $10 to $20 and, while not perfect, it can add a few days to the life of your wine,” explains Hoel. Vacu Vin’s Wine Saver Pump is our favorite option.
The Good Old Refrigerator To Keep Wine Cool
It may seem obvious, but your refrigerator is your wines best friend in the summer. Yes, even for reds. If the room temperature is around 21ºC, put the bottle in the fridge for 15 minutes before serving to bring it to a more comfortable 18ºC. If your red is warmer , give it half an hour.
Whites and rosés will need a solid hour to reach a good serving temperature of about 10ºC. If you like your wine very cold , two hours in the refrigerator before serving should do the trick.
You May Like: Ste Chapelle Soft Red
Dont: Keep Your Wine In An Area Of Harsh Interior Lighting Or Direct Sunlight
One way to ease the selection and viewing of your collection is with lighting. The type of lighting used is very important. Your average household lighting gives off heat, which as we now know, is not good. Sunlight and UV Rays are even worse for your wine. Keep your wine away from windows or other sources of natural light. Your best bet for a light source is LED. LED lighting creates a soft glow without giving off any heat.
Follow these easy steps and your wine will thank you. We guarantee it.
Recommended Reading:
Do I Need A Wine Cooler Sleeve
If you frequently drink wine at home and are close to your refrigerator or have an ice bucket, then you likely dont need a wine cooler sleeve.
If youd like to enjoy chilled wine while camping, boating, or at a picnic after a hike, then you might want to purchase a wine cooler sleeve to keep your wine cool until you reach your drinking destination. No electrical cords required, and no messy drips from water or wet ice.
The downside of some of these wine cooler sleeves or iceless wine chillers is that once they get to room temperature or warmer, they start to lose their chilling properties. Also, not all wine cooler sleeves are puncture-proof which means that if you accidentally stab the chiller with a knife or other sharp object, gel may ooze from the pack.
You May Like: Which Red Wine Has The Least Calories
