Open Wine?

[Jack-Tar]

I am currently living in Italy and my neighbor gave me a 5 liter bottle of wine that his father made. Is there a way to open it and put it in 1 liter bottles?

[Innkeeper]

Hi Jack and welcome to the Wine Board. Can't see any problem with what you want to do so long as you have five corks. If it is homemade Italian wine, I would run it though a decanter funnel if I had one, or you could use a funnel and a strainer. You might want to use the funnel anyway!

[Jack-Tar]

I was told that once you open a bottle of wine, if you don't drink it within that day it will go bad. So is it just that easy? I plan on keeping a couple of these bottles long term. Will opening the big bottle now and exposing the wine to air not cause it to sour?

[Innkeeper]

Not if you work quickly, and fill the smaller bottles up to the top. If some spills out when you cork them, you have done the job correctly.

[wdonovan]

"...Not if you work quickly, and fill the smaller bottles up to the top. If some spills out when you cork them, you have done the job correctly...."

Wouldn't this cause a risk of temperature change pushing the cork out? Don't you need a small amount of air in the bottle as it is compressable while wine is not?

[Innkeeper]

Well, if the bottles were subjected to very warm exposure for several months. We have done this for a period of three months in 65 degrees F temp or less with no cork movement.

Of course we also do this routinely with a half bottle to go into the fridge.