How To Keep Wine Fresh After Opening

How Long Does Wine Last After Opening

The length of time wine lasts after opening varies depending on the type of wine. Red wines tend to last longer than white wines, for example. Generally speaking, however, wine can last anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks after opening. Even the best wine preservation systems wont keep your wine fresh forever.

If You Can’t Keep It Cool Keep It Stable

You do not need to refrigerate unopened wine. The ideal wine-storage temperature is 45 degrees F for white wine and 55 degrees F for red wine, but if you’ll be opening the bottle within six months, a warmer room temperature is fine. Just avoid storing bottles in pockets of high heat or in locations where temperatures fluctuate drastically, such as next to the dishwasher or stove. Above all, don’t stash a collection on top of the refrigerator, says Robinson. Overhead lighting and refrigerator exhaust give off a lot of heat, and the constant vibration can adversely affect taste.

Does Fortified Wine Last For Longer After Opening

Some fortified wines are built to last and can be kept in the kitchen fridge for up to several weeks once opened.

I nearly always have a bottle of tawny on the go in the fridge, said Port expert Richard Mayson in 2016.

In her recent feature on serving and preserving sweet and fortified wines, Anne Krebiehl MW said ruby and reserve will last a few weeks and Tawny could have up to six weeks in the fridge.

The only one to not keep hanging around is vintage Port, which should be drunk up in a few days.

Sweet wines will also last well when refrigerated, said Krebiehl.

These wines are resilient, Aline Baly, co-owner of Château Coutet in Barsac, previously told . That you can keep a bottle open for more than a week is a fact unknown to many.

Its worth bearing in mind that there are also a diverse range of gadgets claiming to make your wine last longer, although we havent tested them for this article.

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Accounting For Different Types Of Wine

How To Store Opened Wine

Knowing how to keep wine after opening is a critical skill to master. No one likes to go back to that unfinished bottle to find it turned into vinegar!

Lets start with red wine because its the most resilient wine style. How to store opened red wine? Thanks to red wines pigments and tannins , it is more resistant to wines most dangerous enemy: oxygen. The air oxidizes wine stripping it from its fresh fruit aromas and allows bacteria to settle in the type of bacteria that turns alcohol into vinegar.

White wine is a bit more susceptible than red wine because it lacks all those protective compounds found in red wine. How to store white wine after opening? The best way to preserve wine, both red and white, is to close your opened bottles with a cork and keeping them in the fridge for up to three days. It should be just fine. If theres too little wine left in the bottle, transfer it to a smaller bottle to reduce oxygen exposure.

Leavening opened wine bottles at room temperature overnight might be enough to ruin them, so store them as soon as youre done for the night. Once the wine goes bad, theres no going back.

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The Best Ways To Preserve Wine After Opening

Lockdown is the perfect time to work on improving your tasting skills. If you are opening more than one bottle at a time, how can you preserve your wines freshness for as long as possible?

Practising wine tasting without a study group is always challenging. Its also more expensive, as you cannot split the cost between you and then youre left with wine you understandably wouldnt want to waste.

From the moment you open the bottle, the clock is ticking, and your wine is beginning to lose its aromas and flavour characteristics.

Weve put together the best wine preservation tips to help you keep your wine at its best for a little bit longer.

On the WSET Level 1 Award in Wines, you will learn how to store and serve wine and some basics to food and wine pairings. Find out more here.

/ Keep Your Wine In The Fridge

Because theyre usually best enjoyed chilled, putting opened white wines in the fridge feels instinctive. When it comes to red wine, because its characteristics are better expressed in warmer temperatures, any form of chilling might seem like a faux pas.

But you shouldnt be afraid of storing opened red wine in the fridge. Cooler temperatures slow down chemical processes, including oxidation. A re-closed bottle of red or white wine in the fridge can stay relatively fresh for up to five days.

Some light-bodied reds can actually be very enjoyable while served slightly chilled .

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Sealing And Storing Wine

At What Temperature Should You Keep Red Wines

Its essential to maintain a proper temperature to store red wine to avoid spoilage. Most of the red wines offer the best taste at a temperature slightly cooler than room temperature. That is around 17 to 19°C / 62 to 66°F.

Placing it in the fridge will allow it to last longer at a temperature of 55°F. This is much better than keeping it at a room temperature of 70°F / 21°C. In case the temperature goes beyond 70°F, the wine will become bad.

Also, rapid temperature variation can affect pinot negatively. Hence while serving the wine after taking it from the fridge, its better to warm it slowly using lukewarm water.

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Has Your Wine Gone Bad

Its not too difficult to deduce whether your bottle hasgone off. If youve left it open for a few days, give it a sniff and ifyoure brave enough have a taste. If its changed colour, developed anunpleasant odour, or its tasting notes have fouled, its very likely yourbottles gone off. Typically, bad wine will either taste vinegary or like gone-offfruit.

But dont worry, bad wine is still technically drinkable, so you neednt worry about it being harmful for your body. That said, it isnt pleasant to drink.

How To Store Open Bottles Of Wine

• There are various methods for storing opened bottles of wine using a bottle stopper/vacuum pump is the most popular method.
• Vacuum pumps and stoppers aren’t that expensive and mean you can enjoy your favourite wine a day after you’ve opened it.
• We recommend that you don’t leave a wine open for more than 3 /4 days.

What do you do with your bottle of wine after only having a glass? This is often the case you have one or two glasses of wine, then the rest of the bottle is left. Therefore we have produced this guide to help you know the best way to keep your wine after it has been opened. You will never waste a single drop again!

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Boxed Wine To The Rescue

If you are so tired of wasting good-quality wine because you simply cant drink it all, consider making the switch to boxed wine.

Funny enough, boxed wine will stay fresher for longer than bottled wine.

I know the stigmas around being the person with boxed wine, but if its bottled youll have under a week. If its boxed youll have wine that can last for more than a month!

Some of the benefits of boxed wine include:

• Extended duration of freshness
• Less breakable than glass bottles good for travelers
• Resealable
• If you like to use wine for cooking but dont require an entire bottle at any point

Boxed wine remains the easiest to preserve for flavor because you are not exposing the wine to oxygen for long periods. You also pour and reseal it after each pour to lock in optimal freshness.

There is somewhat of a social stigma around boxed wine, but people are caring less and less about the packaging these days, with boxed wine on the rise.

No one cares what it looks like, as long as it tastes good. It depends on how tired you are of flushing vino and dollars down the drain, but there must be at least one kind of boxed wine that you will love.

Some of the nicest bottled wineries from all over the world are packaging their product in boxes to reach more customers needs.

You may be surprised at how nice it feels to not rush through a bottle for fear of wasting it.

Experiment with some boxed wine brands to get started like the popular three:

• Black Box
• Bota Box

Storing Unopened White Wine

Some important things to keep in mind before you have opened your white wine are the following:

• Determine if it needs to be drunk within 3-5 years and if it is a shelf-wine or a wine that ages over time.
• No wines should ever be stored in a normal refrigerator for longer than a week. You can store it in a wine refrigerator that is specially made for that use, or a normal refrigerator. Just be sure it is stored horizontally and on its side to keep the cork moist.
• A winemaker on this forum describes how winemakers take the time to add sulfur to the molecules which will bind to the oxygen. If you put a younger white wine in the fridge, it should not deteriorate due to this sulfur exposure it was shown early on, but he describes:
• The free sulfite eventually gets used up by the oxygen that leaks through the cork even under optimal storage conditions , so I would be very careful when traveling with old bottles of great wine.

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Buy From A Reputable Source

If youre going to splurge on wine, then make sure you buy from a reputable source. You should be able to see where it was made, when it was bottled and what vintage it is on its label.

If your wine has a screw top or something other than a cork stopper, look for organic wines corks can let oxygen into your bottle over time.

These changes in air exposure will change how wine tastes, so if you want your vino to taste great down the road stick with organic wines. Dont refrigerate it: We knowit sounds counterintuitive!

Ways To Keep Wine Fresh For Longer

No Coravin, no problem. Or, maybe you have a Coravin but you mistakenly decided to open the whole bottle and are realizing that you wont finish it in one sitting. Here are some ways you can extend freshness beyond the one- or two-day mark:

Now that you know how to keep wine fresh, lets set some realistic expectations for how long different wines should last.

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How To Store Wine Better

To keep your wine from oxidizing too quickly, you need to make sure you have the correct equipment for the type of wine you’re drinking.

For sparkling wines, make sure to have a sparkling wine stopper. For white wines, grab some vacuum wine stoppers. Or invest in a wine preservation system that will allow you to store any type of still wine for weeks, months, and even years.

Get in the habit of corking and storing your wine in between every pour in the refrigerator for whites and sparkling, or in a cool, dark place for reds and desserts. It may seem like a pain to have to continuously get the wine out and uncork it, but at least you won’t forget about the bottle and leave it open all night.

If worse comes to worst and you’ve lost the cork and don’t have any other stopper, you can still cover your wine to slow the oxidation process down. Simply cover the opening with plastic wrap or aluminum foil and secure it with a rubber band. While this won’t create an airtight seal, it will still ensure you don’t have to throw the half-full bottle away, which would just be a tragedy.

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Tips On How To Store Open Red Wine

• Store your red wine bottles upright storing wine on its side means the surface area exposed to oxygen increases.
• Avoid storing red wine in the light, especially direct sunlight. Sun exposure can cause discolouration and flavour damage to the wine.
• Store open red wines in the fridge however, remember you should never chill unopened red wine too much.

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