WineFAQ: Keeping leftover wine

How can I preserve leftover wine?

Copyright 1996 by Robin Garr. All rights reserved.
The question of how to keep leftover wine, and how effectively it can be stored, is the source of neverending debates among wine lovers.

The bottom line, I'm sorry to say, is that wine, once opened, starts to deteriorate rather quickly on exposure to air, and it's simply not practical to keep it for very long.

Some relatively inexpensive wine accessories are available, including the "Vacu-Vin" system (a small plastic pump that extracts air from the bottle through a special stopper) and "Private Preserve" (an aerosol can that you use to squirt inert gas into the half-full bottle, forcing out the oxygen, before re-stoppering with the original cork). I'm sorry to say that in my experience, neither of these systems does much good. I've conducted "blind" tastings and find that most people can't detect any improvement in wines stored this way against wines simply left in the original bottle without any treatment.

A more expensive system, "The Keeper," uses positive nitrogen pressure introduced from a pressure can through a special spigot apparatus, which keeps O2 away from the wine and also provides positive pressure for dispensing it through a spout. This system (costs about $60 at wine shops) works better than the above, particularly if you are obsessive about installing it immediately after opening the bottle. Wait until after dinner, and it's too late.

A cheap but finicky alternative is to have available a sparkling clean 375-ml wine bottle ('half bottle' or 'split') and, immediately after opening your wine, decant half of it into the clean bottle, filling it up, and corking it immediately. This may be the most effective option of all, and wine stored in the half bottle should keep for at least a few weeks.

Finally, the simplest procedure is to put the wine in the refrigerator for storage. This works great for whites, which need chilling anyway; for reds, it's a little more trouble, as you've got to take the wine out several hours before dinner to let it warm up again. But just as refrigeration retards the spoilage of fresh fruit, it does the same for fresh wine. In any case, I'd advise drinking the rest of the bottle reasonably soon. No matter what preservation system you use, it will work better for a day or two than for several weeks.

Oh, and one final thought: A lot of better wine shops are increasingly stocking fine wines in 375 ml bottles. You might want to check the better shops in your region and see what's available in the smaller size.

Can I save my leftover Tokaji dessert wine?

That's a tough call, keeping wine in an open bottle. The short, simple and not-so-sweet answer is that wine starts to deteriorate as soon as it is exposed to air, and this process is irreversible. It's definitely best to finish your wine reasonably soon after opening the bottle.

That being said, however, there are a number of variables involved.

Stronger wines and sweeter wines tend to hold up better in an open bottle, for at least a few days, than lighter wines and dry wines. Since it doesn't get much heavier or sweeter than six-puttonyo Tokaji, luck is on your side in this one.

On the other hand, better wines -- those with a high degree of complexity -- tend to show the effects of oxidation quickly, because they have more to lose. As a very fine wine with great finesse, Tokaji is going to lose some of that edge very quickly. One issue here, frankly, is the degree of your "connoisseurship." A wine lover who's really into Tokaji and very familiar with it could probably detect deterioriation literally overnight. Those of us who like it but aren't all that experienced with it could probably go a few days or even a week or two without noticing much difference.

Older wines, having already reached maturity, decay faster once opened than young wines do. Again, your 15-year-old bottle may be working against you here.

A couple of other thoughts:

Refrigeration retards oxidation. If your friend wants to keep it for just a few days, maybe enjoying a little after dinner on Friday, Saturday and Sunday night, he can probably safely just poke the cork back in and stick it in the fridge.

There are some inexpensive wine-preservation systems for sale in wine shops that you can use to suck air out of an opened bottle through a special stopper, or fill the bottle with inert gas from an aerosol can. Frankly, I don't think these work very well. There's a somewhat more expensive system that used canned nitrogen gas attached by tubing to a dispenser spout. It works better, but maybe no better than refrigeration. You can also carefully pour half of your bottle into a clean, sanitized 375 ml bottle, filling it up to the top, and then recork it with the cork that came from your original bottle. This works surprisingly well, and may be the best option if your pal doesn't want to drink the rest of the bottle very soon.

Well, I've given you a lot of talk and no really clear answer, but I hope you can plow through all this and draw conclusions that will work for you. The short answer is that you shouldn't plan to keep the open bottle for TOO long, but a few days to a week will probably be OK, especially in the refrigerator, as long as you're not dedicated connoisseurs of Hungarian dessert wines.

The other option, of course, is to have a party for a few friends and let the opening of the rare bottle be a highlight of the evening, with just enough to go around giving everyone a glass.

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rgarr@iglou.com