Don't want to finish the bottle, but don't want to waste the wine?? We have all experienced disappointment when the half bottle of yummy wine enjoyed last night tastes awful the next day. Indeed lots of people don't buy a bottle of wine because they know they won't finish the bottle, and they don't want to waste the remaining wine.
Is wine easy to preserve? There are all sorts of elaborate wine preservation systems that restaurants and bars use, but these can be costly. Here are a few inexpensive tips that I find useful for saving the remaining glass or two in the bottle.
The reason that wine deteriorates after it is opened is because it is exposed to oxygen in the air. Oxygen degrades the wine. So the key is to minimize the wine's exposure to oxygen. Here are a few ways to do this.
1. Invest in a Vacu Vin pump and 2-3 stoppers. It will cost you less than $20 in total. You can use then over and over again. All you do is put the stopper in the unfinished wine bottle, and then pump out the air until you feel it secure and tight. This usually keeps the wine fresh for two to three days. These are not for sparkling wines.
2. Keep a batch of half bottles with screw caps. Instead of leaving a half bottle of wine in its original bottle pour it into a smaller bottle, so that the bottle is full. Full means no room for air to remain and attack your wine. I've kept wines fresh for over a week by doing this. A few stick on labels and you can easily remember which wine is in which little bottle.
3. Keep the opened bottles in the refrigerator, even if it is red wine. Just take it out an hour before you plan to drink it.
Wine is expensive, and we don't want to waste it. Hopefully, these tips will be useful.
Vacu Vin supplies are available from most good wine stores, and houseware stores like Bed, Bath and Beyond, The Container Store, Amazon.com etc.
Meanwhile, here are two great value wines that I have enjoyed this week.
• 2006 Quatro Pasos ($15) - from D.O Bierzo in Northwestern Spain. It is made 100% from the local Mencia grape. Full of ripe black and red fruits, raspberry, plum, blackberry with hints of coffee and smoke. Lovely smooth tannins. We enjoyed it with a good old-fashioned Lasagne Bolognese that my husband made at the week-end.
• 2005 Wyndham Estate Bin 555 Shiraz ($10) - from South Eastern Australia. Upfront and fruity, brimming with rich, ripe, black plum and cherry fruit, mint chocolate and sweet spices. Lush, velvet mouthfeel. We had this with blackened char-grilled swordfish.
Until next week, enjoy some good wine.
Related: How To Choose Good Cheap Wine from the Big Brands: Cabernet Sauvignon
(Images: TerraCotta Journeys; Amazon.com)
You guys crack me up. Leftover wine?
view Matilda's profile
Best way to preserve wine...YOU DON'T.
DRINK IT.
:)
view justdowntown's profile
Occasionally it happens, like the blue moon!
view gormanmcadams's profile
this happened to me! just last night, in fact!! and i was so ashamed. but last night's leftover glass will get thrown into tonight's dinner. a new bottle of wine will be opened. and by god i will finish this one!
view nenasadije's profile
A glass gets me tipsy and my husband only likes one glass with dinner, so we rarely ever finish a bottle in 1 night. We'll sometimes put the cork back in and it will taste acceptable the next evening or I'll freeze the leftover wine for cooking.
In terms of sealing the leftovers in a small screw top bottle - do you mean like a rinsed-out soda bottle? And do you fill it to the lip? I'm a little confused...
view Squirrely's profile
In response to Squirrely - any, well rinsed out (make sure no residual aromas) screw cap bottle (soda will do). And yes, fill to the brim, leave no room for any residual oxygen. I had a lot of such bottles left after a big tasting and was really surprised at how fresh the wine tasted after more than one week.
view gormanmcadams's profile
Just buy half bottles, there are plenty of high quality wines available in the 350ml format. I do this with champagne all the time - I love it, but a glass or two is plenty.
view Kathryn's profile
Don't forget box wines. There are many that are perfectly good "utility wines" for the glass here or there, and they last for weeks.
I get the Bota brand wines; they're nothing that a connoisseur would get excited about but they're very drinkable, and at ~$18/3L they're easy on the pocketbook. They're also very environmentally friendly. When you want something fancier buy something fancier!
view Evan M's profile
I try to stick with tetrapacks. We're not big wine drinkers at our house, but we cook with it often, and I hate wasting a bottle of something good for a glass or two. Target sells good ones that come in little single-serve juice boxes. They're rougher than I prefer for drinking, but work well for cooking.
Which I actually had to do over the weekend. Thanks, blue laws, for making spontaneous braising such a chore!
view popcorn.for.dinner's profile
One other method not mentioned here are the spray cans of compressed gasses (e.g. Argon), which can be sprayed into the wine bottle just before re-corking to reduce oxidiation (the oxygen is displaced by the gasses). Some reviews have seemed to indicate that this method is more effective than the vacuum pumps. 'Private Preserve' and 'Wine Life' are a couple of brands that offer these cans. I've yet to try them out, but have a can on order. More on it here: http://www.chow.com/blog/tag/private-preserve
view Steve D's profile
Whenever I am trying to cut back after a period of overindulgence, the easiest way is to limit my wine/alcohol consumption meaning that it is one glass w/dinner per evening. We bought a case of 1/2 bottles a while back, have saved a few and do exactly what the second suggestion recommends: pouring the remnants from our 750ml bottle intp the smaller bottle and storing it that way. It keeps beautifully.
view rosebud's profile
2nding the spray can of heavy gas. It takes a small amount to seal the wine off and I like it much better than the pumps.
Also 2nding freezing wine. I keep 3 ziplocks in the freezer - one for red, one for white and one for Belgian style beer. I use the frozen wine/beer for soups, stews, deglazing, etc.
view laila's profile
Great advice! I usually try to finish all my wine to prevent it from going stale, which usually leave me with a hangover. I am trying to finish one from yesterday at this very minute.
I like the idea of the half bottles. Can anyone recommend good half bottles for this.
view Pierre's profile