How long can you save a wine for?

As we start seeing friends for IRL drinks and continue socialising on Zoom, there are times when you know having one more glass is not going to do you any favours.

Kid commitments or meetings can be equally as painful.

So this week’s tip is all about how long you can save a wine for and ensure that its freshness is preserved.

It essentially comes down to what the wine is, how you store it and how much did you actually leave in the bottle. Here are some simple tips to protect the fruit as well as the freshness!

Keep the bottle cool – even if it’s a red. All leftover wines should be kept in the fridge, especially reds as they lose their freshness the fastest. Ageing reactions happen slower at a lower temperature plus red wine warms up super quick once it’s out of the fridge.

Excessive oxygen is responsible for wines losing their whim and vigour. So the more air in the bottle – the less wine – the faster oxidation will occur and then the contents will become lifeless.

I’m a huge fan of wine vacuum pumps – readily available on Amazon. They administer emergency CPR to your vinous babies and enable them to survive for an extra few extra days.

Some people also put marbles in their bottles to occupy the space which air would otherwise. I am intrigued by this theory, but it so far remains untested in my house. Feedback on this is genuinely encouraged!

The Coravin –a smart gadget which costs just over £100 – extracts as much or as little wine as you care to consume from a bottle with a tube so thin that the cork reseals itself, and the space left in the bottle by the extracted wine is filled with neutral gas. It does a great job for hospitality as it enables wide ranges of fine wine to be offered at restaurants but I must confess I don’t tend to use them at home socially!

Generally the wines which last the longest are unoaked white wines that are made with maximum effort to prolong the bright fruit and fresh acidity. Riesling is the Dorian Gray of grapes. Somewhere there could be a portrait mouldering away but its longevity of age could also be explained by its low Ph and high acidity. It can keep youthful for weeks in an opened bottle as long as it is kept cool enough.

Usually red wines lose their charms the quickest. I adore Pinot Noir at Thanksgiving, but it is so delicate that you really should chuck it after two or three days. Bold, tannic, tightly wound young reds are likely to last longer so that’s some good news, if you don’t manage to finish the big Zins at the end of turkey dinner!

Lastly, the spoon in a bottle of bubbles theory … Again, this theory has been untested in our house. Mainly because, a bottle of bubbly stands no chance of being put back in the fridge. I also can’t think of any scientific reasoning behind it! However, like the marbles, please do let me know, if you have experienced otherwise!