Wine Storage

How to store a bottle of wine that has already been opened – this is a question which will probably receive a few different answers, as well as some questions about whether or not this is a good idea at all, or how long it is possible for.

Yes, one can store wine which has already been opened, and there are a few different ways of doing so - whether in a wine storage units to wine storage cellar. 

When a bottle of wine is opened the wine comes into contact with oxygen and there is no turning back, after long enough the wine will start to convert into vinegar. However long this takes depends on the wine, but any wine will start to deteriorate slowly once opened. The rate of this depends mostly on the age of the wine. It probably isn’t such a good idea to try and store a bottle of wine which is more aged, as this may take anywhere between minutes to hours to lose whatever makes it such a great wine. However, younger wines are more resilient and can last somewhat longer.

There are some ‘contraptions’ which one can obtain easily for reasonable prices, but the best idea is simply to decant the wine, recork it and store it in the refrigerator. So if you are about to open a bottle of wine well knowing that you probably won’t finish the bottle, decant whatever you won’t drink into a smaller bottle, cork it and store it in the fridge. Do so before you even start drinking. The next day take the wine out of the fridge a little while before drinking so that it can comfortably come back to desirable temperature.

So why put it in the fridge in the first place and not the cupboard? Chemical reactions are less rapid at lower temperatures. These lower temperatures also inhibit the action of acetic bacteria (this is what would turn your wine into vinegar). Oxidation, which will eventually spoil your wine, is also slowed down.

Of course there is one exception to this theory – sparkling wine! Decanting a sparkling wine would only serve to make matters worse as you will loose the ‘bubbles’ in your ‘bubbly’. Rather simply recork and store in the refridgerator. This is however probably highly unlikely as a bottle of sparkling wine has no reason not to be completely polished off in one evening!