How do you preserve your wine overnight?

Since I can only drink one glass of wine at a sitting for health reasons and I live alone during the week, I've become quite interested in the various techniques available for preserving wine overnight. Right now, I'm combining one of those $8 inert gas spay cans with -light- vacuuming (maybe 3-4 pumps for a half-empty bottle), and I'm keeping red wine at room temp.

What is everyone else doing? I'm really sensitive to VA, and I find that bottles left without vacuum or inert gas become objectionably vinegary overnight. If I use vacuum only, I find that I lose some of the aromatics and I frequently get a weird cabbagey aroma in the wine after a couple of days. Inert gas alone (from the home-use spray cans) seems to only delay the vinegarification by a day or so.

I'll break it down into a series of questions. Assume, arguendo, that we're talking exclusively about red wine:

(1) Inert gas: Yes/no?
(2) Vacuum: Yes/no?
(3) Refrigerator: Yes/no?
(4) Do you ever pour into a 375 if you have less than a half bottle left? Does it help?
(4) How long can you normally keep a half-filled bottle of, say, young CA Cabernet before you notice a substantial decline, on average?

David,
I recork red wine and leave in on the counter overnight. However, I never let it last more than the second day so, if I had your restrictions, I'd probably either pump it or use inert gas to keep it for a longer period than just the 24 hours I do.
Best, Jim

Simple, but works for me, especially in a hot climate: I just put the cork half way back in and leave in the fridge. If it's red, I take it out (but leave the cork in) two to three hours before drinking. If it's white, I'll drink straight from the fridge.

Works for at least three days, sometimes more (a screwcapped Chilean riesling recently was even better after five days in the fridge).

If it's red and I know for sure I'm having it the next evening, I often won't even put it into the fridge to see how it evolves by itself.

With the caveat that with a willing co-conspirator I rarely have too much left over, here are my answers:

(1) Inert gas: Yes/no? no, but a decent idea
(2) Vacuum: Yes/no? no, it removes some of the aromatics
(3) Refrigerator: Yes/no? yes, lower temperature retards all reactions
(4) Do you ever pour into a 375 if you have less than a half bottle left? Does it help? yes, if I know in advance that we won't drink more than half a bottle or I want to save long term
(4) How long can you normally keep a half-filled bottle of, say, young CA Cabernet before you notice a substantial decline, on average? Hard to generalize. For a young, tannic wine, I'll generally see some improvement over the first few days, then a decline, but it varies substantially

Mark Lipton

I do as Oswaldo does - put the cork back in a little ways and stick it in the refrigerator. Reds are good for 3 or 4 days, but I'm not a terribly sensitive drinker. Whites don't do as well in my opinion, but a couple of days doesn't kill a SB. I do let the reds warm up for a couple of hours before drinking them. I don't rebottle.

John

I use inert gas (nitrogen dispensing system). Opened bottles will keep for weeks that way.

-Paul W.

We go the 375 route.

I always refrigerate, sometimes use 375's, rarely vacuum, don't want to spend the money on inert gas though I've done this in the past, always warm the reds up in a bucket of warm water. This way I can arrive at home and have a glass in 10 minutes or less at the right temp. I have not found this to harm the wine, though I sometimes end up having to cool a red I over-warmed back down to drinking temp.

We go the 375 route.

By far the best way here at Doris Ranch!

I gently pour off into a 375ml immediately upon opening a bottle, cork it and stick it directly into the fridge. Then I start breathing air into the other half and enjoy. The next day it comes out of the fridge as soon as I get home to warm. I might even pour into glasses to warm and air. If I don't get to the second half for a couple of days I haven't lost anything. Seems like more inexpensive wines benefit from this routine more than well made structured ones which can better handle some exposure. I quit vacuuming a while back because I felt I lost too much in the way of aromatics.

I do exactly as Ken does.

If one has a refrigerator and a cork this seems a no-brainer to me.

Ken stole our method.

Chef J,

If your bottle has a screwcap you don't even need a cork.

John the screwcappian

Like Mark, I have a willing co-conspirator, but we might have 2 wines with a meal, so storing what's left is common. Red wine? Cork it and stick it in the fridge. White wine? I agree with others, short-term oxidization is a bigger deal here, and we have screwtop 375s and refrigerate them, too. But red or white, refrigerator temperature is too low to drink, and because during weekdays we don't really have time to let them come up to room temperature by just taking them out of the fridge, we warm them up by the glass in the microwave (yes, we have a tall enough MW to accommodate most glasses). So I was surprised to
read BobH's warm water soak. Am I losing some vital essence through microwaving?

I'm surprised so many people are pouring off into 375s...I would have thought the added benefit of minimizing surface contact with the air would be outweighed by the dissolved O2 you introduce into the wine via the pouring process.

I'm surprised so many people are pouring off into 375s...I would have thought the added benefit of minimizing surface contact with the air would be outweighed by the dissolved O2 you introduce into the wine via the pouring process.

David, I think it has to do with the length of time for the exposure to 02. With 24 hours in the fridge, I would want minimum exposure. You can always decant the 375 when you are ready to use it.

I know this is going to sound terrible but if ever I am elected or appointed as president, king, prime minister or absolute ruler of any nation, one of the first things I will do is to make it illegal to hold a bottle for more than 24 hours after it has been opened and that no matter what the storage method. I firmly believe that no wine, no matter its qualities, should be held responsible for what happens to it after that period of time.

No fear though.....punishment for violating my law will be moderate ... no lashes, no imprisonment, not even a fine. Merely to send a bottle of any fine vintage year of Krug to the ruler's residence.

Best
Rogov

I'm surprised so many people are pouring off into 375s...I would have thought the added benefit of minimizing surface contact with the air would be outweighed by the dissolved O2 you introduce into the wine via the pouring process.

You need not introduce much O2 when you pour off the wine. If you smoothly decant into the 375 the liquid is flowing with what the experts refer to as laminar flow. In that case, turbulence is minimized and there is little oxygen ingress into the wine. For the really paranoid, you could purchase a fish tank aerator, connect it to a bottle of nitrogen, argon or (better yet) helium and sparge your wine briefly with the inert gas, then seal the bottle. Too much work for me, though. To avoid all that work, I'd just drink the wine instead

Mark Lipton

Daniel,

Would your law apply to Porto as well? I have had good luck with some of those improving after 24 hours.

Daniel,

Would your law apply to Porto as well? I have had good luck with some of those improving after 24 hours.

IMHO Porto is a completely different deal than table wine. We keep opened Port(O) in the liquor cabinet with the cork back in for up to a couple of weeks. Same goes for other stickies.

Carl,

Daniel said, "no wine". I'm just trying to get clarification.

I'm surprised so many people are pouring off into 375s...I would have thought the added benefit of minimizing surface contact with the air would be outweighed by the dissolved O2 you introduce into the wine via the pouring process.

I understand where you're coming from, but the exposure to a half empty bottle's worth of air for 24 hours seems much worse to me.

Crazy as it sounds, I wish good wine was available in boxes with plastic inner bags.

Crazy as it sounds, I wish good wine was available in boxes with plastic inner bags.

I agree, Matt, but from what I've heard bag-in-box arrangements aren't very ageworthy (they are somewhat permeable to oxygen) so it would only make sense for wines not intended for cellaring -- and that's a category currently occupied by the fake corked and screwcapped bottles. In Europe, though, there are some decent co-op type wines sold in bag-in-boxes.

Mark Lipton