Every wine is different of its own. Each one of them has a unique taste, aroma, color and even weight. While some people like red or white, other might be more into rosé, fruit, and mead. It all depends on a person drinking the wine and personal preferences.
As an alcoholic beverage, wine has gotten even more popular over the past decades. Every kind of person mostly likes it, as wine is classy, romantic, wise and elegant. Those are characteristics that can never be found in another beverage.
However, you must be careful to completely enjoy it, as you would with anything that precious and good. Reading this article you’ll find out all the methods, tricks and tips that will keep your wine fresh as long as possible. You’ll know what to do in order for your wine not to spoil and what’s good for the taste of it.
Sometimes wines are like little humans or another type of breathing organisms that need to be cared for once opened. Sounds a little weird at first, right? That’s fine, you will get what I mean at the end.
How to store wine after opening without a cork?
Wine is so sensitive that it might get spoiled the next day after opening. It’s highly recommended not to lose the cork. Still, if somehow you can’t find it, that’s not an issue. There are alternative methods to save your bottle of wine. These are essential tricks, without which you’ll never have that same, good, tasty wine again, so be attentive and read carefully.
Surface Area
The surface area plays a significant role in wine spoiling. The taste of wine flattens as the latter contacts the oxygen. That’s why you must do everything to minimize the empty volume area inside the bottle, which will reduce the air exposure as well.
- Transfer the leftover liquid inside of the original the bottle to a smaller one. It’ll not leave any space for the wine to spoil. Don’t use plastic bottles, which worsen the taste. Instead, get small, glass containers which are far safer and can be used long-term. This method will also prevent the wine from fast aging. Just make sure the liquid fits there tightly closed with saran wrap, making sure it’s sealed. The lifetime of your wine will extend for two more days inside the smaller bottle.
- There’s also the option of replacing the oxygen with an inert gas. It’s safe and won’t spoil your wine as fast as oxygen would. Argon is the most common, cheapest inert, and non-reactive gas you can find. Many people and famous wineries use this method, and it works quite well. Just make sure not to leave too much air contacting the wine.
Temperature
Temperature is crucial for storing wine. Even for the bottle that has never been opened, the temperature fluctuations still have a bad impact on it. High temperature causes the aroma to penetrate through the cork and get out, while in case of cooling back down, more air gets sucked inside the bottle. In the end, you get a bottle of wine with no aroma and damaged air and liquid inside it.
The ideal temperature for wine storage is 12°C to 14°C (55°F to 57°F), and the relative humidity is about 60% on average. You can put the wine in the fridge with the temperature of the above mentioned. Still, it’s essential not to forget to warm it up before drinking, as it needs some time to bring the original taste back after being stored in the fridge.
There are some special beverage refrigerators, some of which are dedicated to wines. It would be awesome if you could get one of those, as they’ll be just perfect and convenient for your bottles to be stored right next to each other without covering too much space like they would in an ordinary fridge.
The room temperature is usually a little warmer for wine to last as long as possible. If you can’t afford the wine refrigerator, then it’s a way better option to put your wine in a cooler place, as the cold temperature slows down the bacteria from growing, and the wine from aging. The fridge will also slow down the process of air contact, so it’s a double win for you.
Temperature plays an important role when we talk about storing wine. At 75 F (24 C) wine begins to oxidize. The ideal temperature for storing the red wine is 54 F (12.2 C). Any degree less than 54 F won’t hurt the product, but it’ll slow down the aging process.
The storage temperature must be constant. The quicker temperature changes, the more wine suffers. There are also talks, claiming that the storage area temperature of most wines, especially the red ones, should not fluctuate more than 3 F (1.6 C) a day and 5 F (2.7 C) for a year.
More: How Long does Red Wine Last Once Opened
Ultraviolet radiations and light
Basic sunlight can damage your wine by breaking down the chemical compounds of the wine and causing aging. The UV rays do not fully break every single compound, which can lead to even worse experience, as the taste gets mixed up, and you may not even understand what you drink.
Just for your own sake, find a dark place, where any light hardly reaches and store your wine there. Remember that even though most of the wine bottles are black or have a dark color, still they don’t fully prevent the rays from penetration, causing discoloration and heating of the liquid.
Screw caps
If you can’t find the cork of a wine bottle, then it’s good to know that screw caps are not bad alternatives for that duty. They are as effective and much easier to use. That’s why it would be really beneficial if your bottle had a cap. However, make sure to regularly change them. Screw caps don’t last as long as corks do, so be careful on that part. Anyway, screw caps are great substitutes, and it would be good to have a couple just in case.
One of the fine wines that have caps is Danaris, Grüner Veltliner. The wine company launched this wine in 2017. Danaris has a tart of fruits, zesty citrus. You can taste the touch of white pepper, which makes this unique mix truly amazing. The name “Danaris” was named after the Danube river. The wine is made in Winzer Krems winery, located in Austria’s Kremstal region, also honored for its wine-making history.
Flor de San Martín, Garnacha Blanca is another high-quality wine with a cap on the top. Starting from 2017, Flor de San Martín is being produced in Navarra, Spain. The wine has an extraordinary mixture of flavors, containing straw, citrus and pineapple palate, as well as the pleasant smell of flowers coming out of the beverage.
Château Bauduc, Bordeaux Blanc opens and closes with a cap as well. This wine is made in Bordeaux, France, starting from 2016. It has fresh mango and papaya flavors, creamy layers and balancing acidity. All of these characteristics make this wine a good ingredient in cooking. In fact, some of the most famous chefs like, Rick Stein and Gordon Ramsey are known to have Château Bauduc at their home all the time.
And there are some wines for you that have caps instead of corks. You can find them on Amazon.com. Now let’s move on and see what other methods there are for correctly storing a bottle of wine.
How to recork the wine bottle?
If somehow you have lost the cork of the wine bottle. Then, you are in a little trouble but don’t worry that much as there are alternatives that can extend the lifetime of wine for 2 or 3 days.
Get a wine stopper
Wine stoppers are pretty nice solutions to this problem. Besides looking good, they also do well in keeping the bottle of wine tight close, not allowing any external air or dangerous bacteria get inside. There are tons of designs you can find on online stores like Amazon and specified wine shops around the city.
Some organizations even offer you to create your very own design of wine stopper. They will make it and deliver to you. Wine stoppers are something unique. There might be custom made ones that can never be found elsewhere. It’s also great if you are a collector of wine bottles.
Each bottle design has a special stopper that can be made. They do their job very well, are cheap and look nice, so activate your creativity and get yourself a wine stopper.
Buy a vacuum pump
You can also buy a vacuum pump. It’s created for removing the oxygen left from the bottle, making sure that there’s no oxygen and no way for the wine to contact the latter. A of wineries use vacuum pumps, as they have become a worthy tool to invest your money in.
More: Does Champagne go Bad
How do you keep wine fresh after opening?
So here comes the question. How to store wine if you have already opened it?
Wines can last for eternity when they are closed. However, once opened up, their days are counted. That’s a little sad, but we can’t do anything about it. The lifetime of wine depends on a variety of factors, such as the producing method, vintage and the way it is being stored. It doesn’t get better over time, and there is a high recommendation of consuming wine not long after the opening.
You must know that an opened wine will taste worse after two weeks or even less. In case of keeping it for more than two weeks, the beverage will get all moldy, also causing discoloration. Still, it’s essential to know that a lot depends on the type of wine, its quality, the number of how many times the bottle was opened, and the air left inside. It makes sense to state that the low-quality wine spoils way faster than the good one.
However, we all still want our delicious wine to taste the same, as it does after removing the cork for the first time. We could only wish that its pure aroma stayed forever, but unfortunately, that’s not possible, and we have to take actions in order to extend wine’s lifetime. After realizing that we run out of time, you will need to check out some of these useful methods and tips to prevent the wine from getting spoiled.
Use refrigerator
Put the full bottle or container in the refrigerator. It slows down the process of flavor loss, while also prevents the wine from heating up. Remember to put it vertically, otherwise, it’ll expose the bigger amount of surface to the oxygen.
We have already talked about how important temperature is in storing wine. We use it not for wines only, but for a variety of products we consume. The main function of the refrigerator is keeping the food from spoiling and the same goes for all the wines as well.
Speaking of the refrigerator, we can state that the best temperature for the wine inside it is between 50 – 59 degrees in Fahrenheit (10 – 15 in Celsius), which keeps wine from short storage, besides, it actually forces the wine to age for longer-term storing. Outside of the fridge, at 71 F (21 C), the wine cools down, and fewer reactions interact.
Even so, a lot of times people concern of how long can wine actually be stored in the refrigerator? Well, the answer to this question is not that easy, as factors like age and sulfite play huge roles.
If you got an old bottle of wine, then you better drink it within a couple of hours, as refrigerator can’t really do the magic with wine that is more than 15 years old. Nothing good will happen in that case rather than the beverage losing its flavor and significantly worsening. However, if we are talking about wines that are about 2 years old, then they would last fresh for three or four days at most.
Now let’s jump into the sulfite part. Sulfite or Sulfur Dioxide (SO2, mostly used in Chemistry) is a chemical compound, preserving the occurrence of oxidation. It also restrains the growth of acetobacter, the bacteria that converts ethanol to acetic acid while interacting with oxygen.
It’s important to know that wines having 25 – 30 ppm (parts per million) are way better than the ones with 10 ppm, which, in their turn, are better than the wines with no ppm at all. For now, we can consider that wines bottled with ppm between 25 – 30 ppm can last much longer than any other, and those are the ideal ones for placing in the refrigerator.
Keep it isolated
Wines are sensitive. They breathe like a real creature and can sense the smell of what surrounds them. That’s why you shouldn’t keep anything smelling bad around it. The smell can even penetrate through the cork and affect the flavor of the beverage.
Wine Recommendations
Here is a small list of the best wines you can get on Amazon. We purely filtered the ones with high quality, while the prices also seem pretty decent on their turn, so let jump into it.
Columbia Winery Chardonnay, 2014 – This wine has got pretty popular, as its incredible aroma of pear, apple, and pineapple give an unforgettable taste. It also has a touch of vanilla oak, which gives a little sweetness with the well-balanced acidity. It’s a great choice if you want suddenly decided to have your dinner with a glass of wine next to your plate.
Carnivor Cabernet Sauvignon, 2015 – Another solution for a great evening. It’s very smooth and easy to digest. It contains dark fruit aromas, which can also be figured by the color of the beverage. It has flavors of dark berries, toasted oak, mocha, and coffee. A perfect gift you would take with you while visiting a friend or for bringing to a small party.
Descendants Liegeois Dupont Le Rose, 2016 – This is really something, especially for the Rose Wine lovers. Its bright color expresses the sweet flavors in there. The wine has flavors of pineapple, strawberry, jasmine, and orange hibiscus. The fruity creaminess really does the job, giving the beverage an exceptional touch of balanced acidity. You can also sense the touch of white pepper and roasted hazelnut, which are the main factors that don’t let the wine get too sweet.
Apothic Inferno Red Blend, 2015 – This one is something special. The bottle design already shows how rich its aroma is. The beverage offers dark and red fruit palate, which, in their turn, combine with spicy layers. Now what’s truly uncommon about this wine is that it has been aged in whiskey barrels, taking some of the latter’s characteristics with it.
Here you go. Now you know how to treat your wine, as you learned about the correct methods to store, keep and take care of your classy beverage, so go on and make sure you do everything right.
