Here is a very effective and inexpensive way to keep RED wine fresh for a couple of days. Buy yourself an inexpensive 375ml “halfsie” bottle of wine. Drink with pizza or burgers. Rinse out and turn upside down in a dish rack to dry. The night you are having a really good bottle and only drink half, pour the remaining half into the smaller bottle. Push the cork as far down as it can go. Most of the time, I can get the cork completely into the bottle. Put in a dark place in the kitchen where it will not be exposed to light or heat. A couple of nights later, when you want to finish the good stuff, just uncork. I have been doing this for years and it never fails. “[welldone.gif]” Caveat: Do not try this with an older bottle of DRC or First Growth Bdx.
Hi Marlene, The small bottle solution is very good for home users and is covered way up in this topic. The only additional caveat I’d add would be that, depending on your home temp and personal preference, refrigeration is indicated as part of an anti-oxidation plan. At first it seemed to me that having just exactly a half-bottle left over was problematic, but somewhere I saw a post about pouring half the 750 into the empty 375 BEFORE you begin drinking it. That way you are always OK. What I’ve been learning about lately, which actually floored me, was the idea that you can freeze the small bottles with good results too. I still find it hard to get my mind around that, but it’s been verified by some people I tend to trust. Just to refresh your memory, we met in the wine shop my wife and I used to own in Laguna Niguel. Are you still involved with Grape Radio? The guys there have a few of my Argon devices and have been very happy with the results. It’s really aimed at restaurant BTG programs and at tasting bars where the smaller bottle method just isn’t practical.
I just thawed a 2006 Walter Hansel “Hansel Family Vineyard” chard that was in my garage freezer for well over a year to have with some soft shell crabs that was still rockin. I had to decant some tartrate crystals off the last glass but this wine was not wasted.
Here is my setup, a Wine Saver tap hooked up to an argon welding tank. I initially bought a wine saver home, but the little argon tanks are at least $10 each and only good for 7-8 bottles. So I hooked up a single tap to a small argon welding tank. Someday I might hook up the wine saver home unit to the argon welding tank, but I rarely have more than 1 bottle open at a time.
Now THAT’S cool! [Great for home use, but not so useful for a restaurant or other commercial use.] “[winner.gif]”
My preferred wine preservation system is REALLY simple and effective. I am pretty much addicted to this kombucha tea drink that I buy at Whole Foods. Each glass bottle is 420ml (yep, a little more than half a bottle). As soon as I crack open a new bottle, I immediately fill the bottle to the very top, making sure there is no ullage…cap it and throw it in the fridge. Now I only have 330ml to deal with. At any given time I might have 4-5 of these topped off bottles in the fridge, and suffer no guilt about opening or not finishing a particular bottle of wine. I’ll get to it when I get to it. In my experience, argon/nitrogen preservers, vacu-vin and (especially) wine preserva work great, but I would rather spend my hard earned pennies on wine!
I leave the wine in my decanter in a 60°F cellar if I am going to drink it all in 48 hours. I find some wine is much better that second day. I see no need to get overly fancy!
-Pat Darby
I am not in the least surprised that this thread is still playing out . . .
If you have a palate, you may have figured it out already . . .
just sayin’ . . .
![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
I think inert gas works to a degree to “preserve wine” (aka displace O2)…but it’s not perfect. Once the original bottle has been opened and a wine has been poured from bottle to clean, empty half bottle O2 has been introduced. Anyone telling you that Argon forms a perfect gas layer over wine is full of crap. Filling the half bottle to near top, gassing, and putting in a fridge is just delaying the inevitable.
I do a combo of what people have mentioned previously. Upon opening a bottle, I immediately pour half of it into a clean half bottle. Depending on how anal I feel, I’ll use Private Reserve or Argon, then cork it as far as I can push. Then placed into fridge. I rarely let wine last more than two days, so I always get perfect results.
Agreed! The best preservation I’ve had reported for my Argon unit is 7 to 10 days, and that certainly depends on the wine and the palate of the taster. At first I bought the gas “layer” concept but further research seems to prove that while Argon is ‘heavier’ enough to purge air in equal proportion to the volume introduced, there is no real ‘layer’ formed (except possibly for a very few seconds). What results is a gas-rich blend of the gas and air, so the more Argon you inject the richer the blend (the less O2 remains) and the greater the preservation.
In a commercial (restaurant/winebar) environment transferring the leftover wine to smaller containers is problematic. At home, I think you’re absolutely right.
A couple of people have mentioned this earlier, but screwtopped glass bottles (I use 330ml Perrier bottles) are a lot easier. No ullage, no “as far as I can push” problems. I’ve left them as long as a couple of weeks in the fridge, generally by accident and/or when traveling, with decent results (and certainly better than VacuVin [useless] or Private Reserve [somewhat less useless]). A couple of days is a non-issue; maybe it would be for old and fragile wines, but I’m unlikely to try it with those.