Questions Uncorked

Jun 11, 2008

Ah, Anthony – if I had a dollar for every time I have been asked this question, I’d be a rich woman! This is always a quandary for wine drinkers – myself included – as there are many times when a bottle of wine is just a bit too much for one or two people.

There are a few things that you can do to help make the wine last for a few days. The first thing to do is after you have poured out what you plan to drink that evening, go ahead and seal the wine back up. Or, if you have an empty half-bottle on hand, pour the leftover wine into that. You want to eliminate as much contact between the wine and air as possible and in a smaller bottler there would be less oxygen to speed the deterioration process. Next, you want to try to remove the remainder of the oxygen with either one of the vacuum systems that sucks the air out of the bottle or one of the inert gas sprays that displaces the air (look for both at your local wine store). After you have displaced the oxygen and closed the bottle, I suggest that you put it in the fridge (even the reds) as cooler temperatures will slow the deterioration process further. If the wine is a red, then just take it out of the fridge a half hour or so prior to drinking. All of this will allow you to preserve your leftover wine for 2-3 days.

Another option is to pour your leftover wine into an ice cube tray and freeze the wine. Once the wine is frozen, you can store the cubes in the freezer and then next time you need wine for cooking, you can just pull out a wine cube!