Saving Wine

I posted an inquiry last year that asked if the 55-degree cellar temperature had been arrived at (or verified) scientifically:
http://www.wine-lovers-page.com/forum/village/viewtopic.php?t=5046&sid=464cfa58d61c400ff4f450570e4e8c1a

...and I was pleasantly surprised to see the long thread that question generated. In some of the responses, there was support for performing the multi-year test I had mused about...

I have since completed a different sort of test that seeks to answer the question:
"What is the best way to save a partially consumed bottle of wine?"

While many folks have said, "Just drink it", or "Reduce it to a sauce for cooking later." (I have tried both, BTW), I really wanted to understand what methods work best for that occasional bottle that is half full (or half empty, depending on your philosophical point of view ) that you really want to enjoy later.

The methods I have considered here are:
1. A device that uses vacuum to remove as much air as possible from the original bottle with remaining wine.
2. A small "cruet" that can be filled to the top so there is NO air at all (this system has 2 cruets: 375 ml & 180 ml).
3. A spare 375 ml bottle (dark glass).
4. A 750 ml control bottle that is simply corked.

In Test #1, I pulled two identical bottles of Pinot Noir, and set up the test using each of the 4 methods above, and tasted a 2-ounce sample from each source daily until the wine was gone or dead. (On "Day Zero", I sampled and rated the wine for a benchmark).

In Test #2, I pulled a single bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon, and and put about 7 ounces into each of the bottles used above in methods 1, 2 & 4; and instead of daily tastings, I waited 7 days for the first taste. (I believe this is a more realistic scenario where you might have a partial bottle, and you don't get back to it for a week.)

The results were very interesting, and I promise to post them in about two weeks, once I have converted the charts & graphs to a suitable and POLISHED web format (there is a time committment, and this isn't my day job, BTW ).

In the interim, feel free to conjecture which of these you believe saves the wine for the longest time span:
Vacuuming air out of the bottle.
Pour the remaining wine into a small bottle and cork with no air space.
Pour the wine into a 375 ml bottle and cork (leaving some air in the bottle).
Just cork the original bottle with remaining wine and set aside in a cool area.

I should mention here that I did not consider the method that uses an inert gas to displace any air in a partial bottle -- my theory was that I did not want to get into a method that uses expendables (i.e.: the gas cylinders) -- all of the other methods use items that are one-time purchases, or are typically on hand anyway.

Look here later in June for my test results.

Cheers!
Todd Greeno
http://www.HDLEnhancement.com/

Todd
Fine work sir!

Yes I'm keen to see the results. My guess is that it will not be clear cut, but that on balance one or two methods may seem better than the others. I hope the handy half-bottle (with or without airspace) comes out tops as that's what I tend to do!

regards

Ian

I also posted this topic a few years ago after seeing first hand how ineffective the vacuum method was in keeping a partial bottle of an older red wine alive overnight. The overwhelming feedback at that time was to use inert gas. I switched to that method, and have not been disappointed in its performance.

Regardless, I commend your testing approach, and I also will be anxious to read your results.

-- Clark

I am very much looking forward to your results! I love having a glass of wine with dinner, but living by myself means that I have to keep the bottle for a few days. I've had more than one bottle that was "dead" by the last glass, so I'm interested to hear how I can extend the life of my open wine. Keep us posted!

Todd, for a long time now I have frozen left over wine when I know I won't get back to it for a week or more. Once I froze an inexpensive Chilean cabernet for 6 months. IMO there is no better way to preserve wine for extended periods of time.

I'll just say that what I normally do to "preserve" wine is either (1) recork it and put it in the fridge and try to finish it up within 3 days, or (2) split a bottle into a 375 ml bottle and close that with a cork or some other closure. I have to say that, surprisingly, the second method has not given me very favourable results: it seems that once a wine has been opened and re-opened later, it doesn't quite taste the same as when it is opened the first time. Accordingly, I typically try to finish up whatever bottle I may have opened within the three-day time period.

As for the "vacuum" devices, I admit to being a complete non-believer: you cannot get a true vacuum with such a device, as the resulting pressure differential between the inside of the bottle would either result in the wine boiling (i.e. liquid water, much less alcohol, doesn't exist in a true vacuum) or atmospheric pressure crushing the bottle, or both. Maybe a bottle can withstand the almost 15 lbs / square inch of atmospheric pressure at sea level? I don't know ... but without a true vacuum in the bottle, you still have air working on the wine. THEREFORE, I would be highly partial to using inert gas, then recorking and refrigerating the wine if it is to be stored for any length of time.

As for the "vacuum" devices, I admit to being a complete non-believer: you cannot get a true vacuum with such a device, as the resulting pressure differential between the inside of the bottle would either result in the wine boiling (i.e. liquid water, much less alcohol, doesn't exist in a true vacuum) or atmospheric pressure crushing the bottle, or both. Maybe a bottle can withstand the almost 15 lbs / square inch of atmospheric pressure at sea level? I don't know ... but without a true vacuum in the bottle, you still have air working on the wine. THEREFORE, I would be highly partial to using inert gas, then recorking and refrigerating the wine if it is to be stored for any length of time.

The point of those devices is not to achieve true vacuum, but rather to achieve a suitably reduced pressure. Ultimately, it would be impossible to achieve a lower pressure in the headspace of the bottle than the vapor pressure of wine's most volatile component. Ethanol's vapor pressure is 59 Torr at 25°C (0.078 atmospheres), so one could probably expect that as the lower limit to the pump systems. The point is that they significantly reduce the quantity of oxygen that the wine can come into contact with, thereby reducing the amount of oxidation. The problem is that they may also pump out some of the volatile flavor elements from the wine.

Mark Lipton

[Robin Garr]

In the interim, feel free to conjecture which of these you believe saves the wine for the longest time span:
Vacuuming air out of the bottle.
Pour the remaining wine into a small bottle and cork with no air space.
Pour the wine into a 375 ml bottle and cork (leaving some air in the bottle).
Just cork the original bottle with remaining wine and set aside in a cool area.

Great job, Todd! Can't wait to see the results, but I'm guessing that small bottles with no air ought to be the best option.

I'm assuming a couple of variables that you didn't mention but that seem important:

1. Decant into the smaller bottle immediately upon opening, don't wait until after dinner.

2. Pour gently, down the side of the bottle, attempting to aerate the wine to be preserved as little as possible.

Thanks for the specs, Mark - most interesting.

Having said that, I think I'd still go for the inert gas as a way of not affecting the wine's volatile components, at the same time simply displacing the oxygen in the headspace with a non-reactive gas.

Thanks for the specs, Mark - most interesting.

Having said that, I think I'd still go for the inert gas as a way of not affecting the wine's volatile components, at the same time simply displacing the oxygen in the headspace with a non-reactive gas.

Speaking as an organic chemist with much experience in deoxygenating solvents, let me point out that the spray cans of nitrogen or argon won't do a very good job of removing dissolved oxygen from the wine itself. To do that, you need to either do a freeze-pump-thaw cycle (unattractive for wine) or a fairly lengthy sparge (bubbling the inert gas through the liquid using something that looks like a fishtank aerator). The advantage that argon has over nitrogen is that it's heavier than air, so stays in the bottle better and also diffuses out more slowly. However, simply displacing the oxygen from the headspace will substantially reduce the oxidation. Still, I prefer the half bottle approach, which if done with care really preserves the wine quite nicely... and a lot more cheaply than the more technologically advanced alternative.



Mark Lipton

Speaking as an organic chemist with much experience in deoxygenating solvents, let me point out that the spray cans of nitrogen or argon won't do a very good job of removing dissolved oxygen from the wine itself.

Mark, not trying to be a smartass, but I didn't think the purpose of Private Preserve and ilk was to remove dissolved oxygen from wine, but rather to replace oxygen in the headspace to slow deterioration of the wine.

I gas all of the sample bottles I receive and pass them out to the neighbors (a very happy neighborhood). The wines hold for a week or more without problems.

Hi Todd -- it's nice to see your name.

My preferences depend in part on what I plan to do with the wine. If it's my normal half bottle and I plan to drink it in a day or two, just corking it works very well for almost all my wines.

If the wine is particularly delicate, and I plan to drink it in a day or two, I prefer either gassing or pouring into a half bottle with no head space, carefully, as Robin suggests, to avoid oxygenating and before any airing and to ensure the half bottle is full.

If I'm sharing a partly consumed bottle with friends, ala Randy -- whatever remains -- I prefer freezing or gassing, generally gassing since some of my friends hate the idea of freezing wine.

Long term, freezing works best as Bob H suggests; gassing is ok but expensive, and the half bottle may or may not work well depending on the integrity of the closure -- usually just fine now that I use screw caps on my half bottles.

Regards, Bob

I gas all of the sample bottles I receive and pass them out to the neighbors (a very happy neighborhood). The wines hold for a week or more without problems.

Randy, I guess this make you the neighborhood gas passer. I didn't know you were a dentist on the side. Also, just think how much happier the neighbors might be if you put nitrous oxide in those bottles. They wouldn't care what the wine tasted like.

-- Clark

Randy, I guess this make you the neighborhood gas passer.

I need to lay off of the fiber for a while...

Mark, not trying to be a smartass, but I didn't think the purpose of Private Preserve and ilk was to remove dissolved oxygen from wine, but rather to replace oxygen in the headspace to slow deterioration of the wine.

NP, Randy. What went unsaid is that the dissolved oxygen presents a very real problem for oxidation, so if you don't remove it you should expect a certain degree of oxidation. Of course, the pumps won't remove it, either: to passively degas a solvent you have to either take it to its boiling or freezing point, neither of which may be very salutary for the wine.

Of course, oxidation is only as big a problem as your ability to detect it and the wine's ability to withstand it, so one has to decide how paranoid to get about avoiding it.

Mark Lipton