Life of a wine....

[whino]

I am new to wine drinking and new to this board. I was wondering, in general, what is the life of a wine after the cork is open? Does it vary with types of wine? Thanks for all the useful info you all give out here.

[Bucko]

Not long, depending on a lot of variables. Old wines tend to deteriorate rapidly after opening, wheras young wines will keep in the fridge for a day or two with just a cork stuck in them. Fortified wines, e.g. Vintage Port, will last for a couple of weeks. The vacumn pumps you'll see for sale to preserve wine are basically worthless. The best way to keep a wine for a week or two is to use inert gas, e.g. Private Preserve.

Or if you are like WW and me, there IS no left over wine....... [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/biggrin.gif[/img]

[Innkeeper]

In her 2002 book "Wine Buying Guide for Everyone" Andrea Immer gives you tips on wine brands that are supposed to be good year in year out. Among the tips are what she calls "Survivors Guides" for each wine. She simply recorks wines with original cork or synthetic, and places whites in the fridge and reds on the kitchen counter. She then tells you how long each wine from each brand will last. I find it very informative.