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Leftover wine - 2007/05/09 14:02
Some things have a longer shelf life in the refrigerator than others. The freshness window for wine can be a matter of hours or days. I opened a bottle of Argentinean torrontes recently and finished it off five days later having a glass here and a glass there. Each serving, from the first to the last, was very tasty. Because I was camping, I didn't preserve the wine with anything other than it cork and a cooler.
This bottle of wine was not expensive, so its endurance was surprising. The fresh flavors in most bottles of wine under $20 usually do not last for more than a day or two. There are a few ways to prolong the freshness in a newly opened bottle of wine. The main objective is to diminish exposure to oxygen.
Vac-u-vin is a device that sucks the air out a bottle of wine, creating a vacuum. An hourglass shaped fitting with a rubber gasket is placed over the neck of the bottle. Once the air is pumped out, the plastic fitting is left on the bottle to preserve the vacuum inside the bottle. I was a bit skeptical until I saw it collapse the bottom of a defective bottle.
Another method involves spraying a blanket of inert gas into an open bottle of wine and then replacing the cork. This is my method of preserving wine. I find I get at least another week out of an open bottle if it is gassed and recorked immediately. The concoction of harmless gas is heavy and lays on the surface of the wine, displacing the oxygen. I've gone back to bottles two weeks later and found them very drinkable when gas was added to the bottle.
Other methods are to refrigerate the wine to slow the oxidation or pour it into a smaller bottle that has little room left for air. The small investment made can optimize your wine dollars, which means more wine for your glass, instead of the sauce.
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TheOldWine
