Storing Opened Wine

One of the challenges of being a wine drinker is how to safely store opened wine that is left over from a party or even a dinner. Some wine can be expensive and you do not want to have to constantly be pouring wine down the drain for the only reason that the full bottle was not consumed by you and your guests. Of course most people will just re-cork the bottle and pray that will be enough to preserve the taste and quality.

That approach could be a huge mistake. Here are six great tips on storing opened wine that will save you a lot of money and even headaches.

1. Do not store sparkling wine in your refrigerator for more than a week at most. After 5-7 days in this environment, you will end up with a wine that is flat due to the cold temperature. So plan to have opened sparkling wines up to 5 days after being opened or think about giving it away within a day or two.
2. Port wines can keep longer after opening but be sure to consume within thirty days. After that it starts to lose its character and it will be hard to enjoy.
3. As with all wines, try to store them horizontally to ensure that the cork is kept moist and air does not seep into the bottle.
4. Try transferring the leftover wine into smaller bottles that store better and preserve the quality of the wine by ensuring that the corks are kept moist when laid horizontally. Indeed, having smaller bottles allow you the option of giving your guests each a bottle.
5. You can try getting a wine preservation system if it is worth your while depending on how much and how often you consume wine. If you are into heavy party hosting maybe for professional reasons, you will definitely want to consider this. However, be sure to get a top of the line system, one that will preserve the character of you wine and not result in a degraded taste or flavor.
6. Where possible, try buying your wines in half bottles. While this may not be possible at all times given the wine being consumed, this is a pro-active approach that can save you a lot of money and present you with almost no wine spoilage.

By taking the above steps or any combination, you can keep your opened wines without losing flavor or aroma, and possibly host a better wine tasting party even from wines opened before.

Want to learn more about how best to store your wines, including opened wines? Read more about Wine Storage and Wine Tasting at http://topicaldigest.com/winetasting/