+- WineBoard (https://www.wines.com/wineboard)
+-- Forum: GENERAL (https://www.wines.com/wineboard/forum-100.html)
+--- Forum: For the Novice (https://www.wines.com/wineboard/forum-2.html)
+--- Thread: Re-corking (/thread-17752.html)
- RyanH - 08-03-2006
Ok, so I live alone and typically have at most 2 glasses at any one sitting. I've been going back and finishing off opened bottles even if I'm not really in the mood for that type, or even if it's not particularly well suited to the food I'm eating, because I don't want to waste it. I read elsewhere that you pretty much don't want to wait more than 1 week to finish a bottle after it's been opened, no matter what type it is.
So is this true? Or will they taste well enough if I go 2 or even 3 weeks between opening and finishing?
- Innkeeper - 08-03-2006
I'm very reluctant to keep opened wine very long. For the last month or so, my wife has been taken off alcohol among other things because of reflux and diabetes. The reflux is hopefully temporary, and the diabetes we can handle easily with diet.
Anyhow, I'm down to a half bottle a day. I found a screw top half bottle of wine in the local emporium, and use it for the other half bottle. I rinse it out thoroughly after use, and fill it full up to top with the new half bottle, and finish the other half with dinner. I plan for two consecutive meals with the same wine. It doesn't always work out perfectly, but in this game, like horeshoes and handgranades, close is acceptable. Tonight I had pork chops with Riesling, and tomorrow will have the other half with grouper.
- Kcwhippet - 08-03-2006
OK, Ryan, here's the bad news. If you drink a glass or two from a bottle and recork it then put it on the counter for a few days, particularly in SoCal, the wine is toast. The two greatest enemies of wine are oxygen and heat. Once you open the bottle, oxygen starts working on the wine. Admittedly the small diameter of the wine bottle doesn't let in a large amount of air, but enough gets in to affect the wine. I don't know what the temps are in your home, but over the past few weeks it's been pretty brutal everywhere I've been - from NorCal to MA. So, you can retard the process by putting the corked bottle in the fridge after you've had a glass or two. Even better is to get a can of Private Preserve from your local wine shop. It's a combination of inert gases that you squirt into the bottle, recork then put into the fridge. That can help the wine last as much as a week. The Private Preserve costs about $10 in your local fine wine shop. Incidentally, about where are you in SoCal, because one of this Board's denizens has a fabulous wine shop in the LA area.
- Thraz - 08-03-2006
I've been using IK's method for a year or two (since reading about it on this board from IK) and it works perfectly - better than all the gas injecters and other fancy tools I'd tried until then. If I put the half bottle filled to the rim and properly stopped in the fridge, I find it will easily last two or three days (even red wine), so that helps if you don't want the same wine two days in a row. Just take it out of the fridge long enough before dinner. No reason it should not work with 187ml bottles if you need smaller quantities.
[This message has been edited by Thraz (edited 08-03-2006).]
- brappy - 08-03-2006
I just finish the bottle... [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/biggrin.gif[/img]
- lamiller - 08-22-2006
Has anyone tried the wine attachment you can get for a vaccum sealer? I've got a vaccum sealer and was just wondering if it was worth it to buy the attachment.
- VouvrayHead - 08-22-2006
If by "vacuum stopper" you mean those little rubber things that go over the top with theoretical one-way air holes and a plastic pump-like attachment, i don't think they do much. we use them at the store i work at, and i'm not convinced they work at all.
- Kcwhippet - 08-22-2006
The only thing about the vacuum things that works is the marketing hype. Product itself doesn't.
- wdonovan - 08-23-2006
Glad to hear KC's comment about the vacuum gizmos. I had been given one as a gift. It pulled maybe 3 to 4 inches Hg. This translates, optimistically, to about 25% of the air (25% of the oxygen). There's still 75% in the bottle. What's the point? Purging a bottle with argon or nitrogen (and replacing nearly 100% of the oxygen) only keeps it good for maybe a week. What possible benefit could there be in removing only 25% of the oxygen? Those devices are great gifts for people you need to give a gift to but don't really have time to think of something useful.