Wine tasting at home - how to store unfinished bottles

So, in such testing, worrying and frankly quite often boring times, I’ve decided to try and occupy my time by getting stuck into some wine tasting. However, as opposed to glugging away as per my usual style, I actually bought a notepad to take notes and to try and develop my knowledge and palate. [cheers.gif]

I opened two bottles earlier, pretty much at random, 1 old world and 1 new: A Rouchier St Joseph (la chave) and a Ridge Lytton Springs 2014.

I don’t want to drink two bottles on a Thursday night - particularly 2 at 14+%! I know that every day’s the weekend right now, but I’m trying to be sensible with the daily intake and that approach seems like the best option to further one’s education. I searched the page and can’t find any direct answers, so my question is:

What’s the general rule of thumb / favoured process for storing wine at home from day to day? Should I just leave both wines open and start on them again tomorrow to see if I can perceive any differences from day 1? (both bottles are now half full in their bottles - not decanted). Or should I plug the bottles with their corks and go again tomorrow. I don’t have a Coravin system or any fancy gadgets to aid with this.

In the past, I’ve left young Rhone and some other reds out uncorked at room temp or slightly lower and they’ve been even better the next day - Particularly Rhone. Burgundy less so, it loses massively on day 2 I think - young or old. I’ve had much less success with whites on day 2 - white Burgundy and Californian chardonnay to name two that weren’t good the next day when left open and uncorked in my experience. They’ve been decent enough, although still not as good, with the cork stuck back in and then placed in the fridge until reconsumption on day 2.

Any help / comments / suggestions on the best approach would be great. Thanks in advance for any comments !

I really do hope everyone is keeping well, taking care and staying safe on here.

All the very best,

Kevin

I immediately pour 1/2 into a split, put cork in and put in refrigerator.

I got a pretty good deal on an unused coravin on e-bay. You can look at previous threads on the subject but I think it is well worth it, especially if you are only trying to keep the bottles for a few weeks.

Thanks Ian,

I’m only ever looking to store the bottles for 24 hours maybe 2 days (48 hours) at an absolute maximum. Do you have any advice based on that?

Do the split trick - pour into 1/2 bottle as soon as you open. Should be fine.

Coravin is best but expensive. The 1/2 bottle is a good idea. Argon gas canisters are not expensive and get you up to a week or so especially if you pour then cork right away.

thanks for the advice. I don’t have a half bottle, but I’ll get one asap and go with that and I’ll also invest in Corivan. In the meantime, for tonight and this week what is the best option?

  1. Keep the two red bottles open until tomorrow, store in a cool area and taste again tomorrow
  2. Cork the two red bottles, store in a cool area and taste again tomorrow
  3. Cork the two red bottles, put in the refrigerator and taste again tomorrow

thanks again for all your insight - it’s much appreciated.

Option #3 definitely. I do this with the majority of bottles I open at home. The next night, take the bottle out of the fridge several hours before dinner, to let the bottle slowly come up to the proper temp. If this doesn’t work for you, for whatever reason, it’s best to look for another approach.

We generally drink half a bottle a night, mainly (as you point out) to try and prevent unhealthy levels of consumption, since we (or at least I - she takes a pass many nights) have wine with dinner almost every night. I typically decant the half we’re going to drink into a decanter and then immediately put the cork or a stopper into the half-empty 750, and put it back in the cellar (which is 55 degrees), and leave it at that. I used to try some of the more involved methods with the half-bottles, or the gadgets (the vacuvin, the argon, etc.) but never found them to be worth the extra hassle for me.

Dave - thanks for your reply. I’ve done exactly the same as you, but I’ve recently put them in the fridge. keep 'em in or take em out of the fridge? what do you think?

thanks again

I don’t think there is any doubt that the cellar is more preservative than leaving them out on the counter, and that the fridge is more preservative than the cellar. Every so often, I know it’s going to be several days or a week before we finish a wine, and I will use the fridge. The rest of the time, I just use the cellar. In the pre-pandemic world, I tended to get home late from the office, most evenings, so having enough time for the wine to warm up was another issue with using the fridge that I just didn’t want to mess with. I still wouldn’t just leave it out on the table, especially in the summer, but for wines I’m finishing the very next night (which is the vast majority of them), the cellar has always worked fine for me.

Thanks all for your advice - they’re corked and in the Fridge!

thanks again - much appreciated!

My wife and I have found that one of the best uses for the Coravin is to be able to do tastings of multiple bottles just the two of us. We’ve done up to 6 in the past. It’s really fun and great for learning. We’re doing a 4 wine Rasa Vineyards tasting tomorrow. We’ll Coravin 2-3 oz each per bottle. Might wind up opening one after but the others will only have about a glass removed and can be saved for months.

Coravin is great, but I use it more for long term tasting. I can take a small pour of a bottle over the course of several months. I just finished a Lafite I Coravin’d half of Christmas 2018. It was no worse for wear. I also had a DRC RSV that I took several pours out of over a few month span.

Coravining half a bottle every night just to finish it off in the next few days would be kind of obscene IMO. If you’re regularly drinking half a bottle, another method makes more sense. I just drink half of the bottle and leave the other half on the counter corked. I start there the next day.

However, I will say that for the Coravin I use the knock off Argon capsules that are half the price (used to be 1/4 the price) of the legit ones.

Kevin- If I’m just keeping it overnight, I’ll just refrigerate the bottle and don’t usually bother to pour the wine into a half bottle. But if I expect to drink a half bottle or less, and won’t drink the balance the following night, I’ll pour off half into a 375ml bottle as soon as I’ve pulled the cork.

I ALWAYS refrigerated leftover wines. There are several reasons:

  1. Oxidation, which varies with the wine. Some grapes, like Grenache, oxidize very quickly. Cabernet and Syrah, less so.
  2. Some old world wines will develop noticeable volatile acidity (acetic acid/vinegar and/or ethyl acetate) overnight at room temperature.
  3. Aroma compounds evaporate out of the wine much more rapidly as temperatures rise. In some cases, the wine becomes more aromatic with time — up to a point, such as a few hours. But I can’t think of a wine I would expect have better aromas after 24 hours at room temperature.

Agree with most people here - put it in the fridge overnight. Just don’t forget to take it out of the fridge well beforehand to come up to optimal drinking temp, especially if we’re talking about reds.

The 4oz Boston bottles that people have been using for zoom tastings are a good option too. Fill it so no extra air and throw in the fridge should be good for days if not more.

For my reds - Private Wine Preserve (argon) and put it in the fridge.

For my wife’s whites - Vacu-Vin and refrig.

I was shocked to read James Laube’s article on freezing wine, but it really works. You can come back to a wine weeks later with virtually no change to it. I use either a half bottle or a beer bottle, which is close. Haven’t tried microwaving the wine to thaw like he suggests (!), though— I just run the bottle under warm water.

I agree with Mike above. Look at two things on Amazon:

  1. a $12 can of argon gas – use a 1-2 second squirt to preserve any wine
  2. look at Repour Wine Saver on Amazon. I haven’t used it yet but it came highly recommended to me and has great Amazon reviews.

In both cases, you should store leftover wine in your main fridge (not a wine cooler) and take them out 30-60 minutes before you want to drink them again.

Surprised no mention of Repour corks for short term use. About a buck a pop, and I’ve really enjoyed them. I’ve used it to preserve wine 2-3 weeks no problem. They claim 1 cork works an unlimited # of times on the same bottle, but IME it’s really best to aim for 1 “corking.” I suppose you could use another brand new Repour if you wanna preserve a bottle for the second time.