I have a bad habit of opening a bottle and finishing it, on the rationalization that it won’t be as good the next day. I do have a vacu-vin deal, which I guess works OK.
Is there any product out there that holds say 375 ml. The idea would be to pop a 750 and then immediately pour half into this vessel and quickly seal it with minimal air hitting the wine. I’ve tried using old splits, but feel there’s a sanitary issue in getting them clean. I guess I could pour off half the 750 into a large glass and seal the remainder, but that would still leave a lot of air in the bottle.
2 glasses at night would be a lot healthier than 4.
Pour it in a half bottle, sterilise it if you really want.
Stick the bottle in the fridge…combination of ease and pretty good efficacy. The VacuVin is kind of silly, IMO.
what about those inert gasses that they sell that you spray some in the bottle? I’ve never used them but see them on the shelf.
I use half bottles and recork them and sometimes throw them in the fridge (oxidation happens more slowly at cooler temperatures). If you’re worried your half bottle isn’t clean enough, buy a few empties at a homebrew/home winemaking place or buy a wine in a half bottles and clean it after you empty it.
I haven’t had a sanitary issue with old half bottles. Glass is fairly inert and wine has pretty low acidity and has alcohol so it’s not a good medium for growing stuff (particularly over 1-2 days). I just wash them in hot soapy water and they seem fine. I’ve never had any issues of off flavors from using the same half bottle over and over (I wash it when I empty it and don’t let it sit overnight).
If you have a large enough pot, you can sterilize the bottle by boiling it. You’ll want the foil and label off, which can be done mechanically or by soaking the label. I suppose it would come off in a boil, but I’ve never tried that. It depends upon the glue in use and the type of label paper. You can get the hot bottle out with tongs, but it is simpler to just let it cool down naturally.
Cheers,
fred
my experiences:
– I use the vacuum product, personally I think it does do something to retard oxidation. I have heard folks who say it also sucks all those great tertiary flavors out of the wine, afraid I am probably incapable of confirming.
– I have tried the inert gas method, and I really do think this changes the flavor. Inert or no, perhaps it dissolves in the wine and tastes like something.
– I have used the half-bottle method, certainly this must be an improvement on a half bottle of air on top of the wine; i just rinse very well with hot water and fully dry immediately after emptying, and reuse.
– Cold is a great preserver, I always refrigerate whatever is left, and gently rewarm as necessary before drinking. I have also put a recorked (full or half) but Not Too Full bottle in the freezer, which in my experience preserves the wine indefinitely.
– Many, if not most wines which are not particularly old and fragile will non-destructively evolve for a day or so almost regardless of your chosen preservation method, including simple reclosing and placing on counter. In addition, none too few wines actually evolve and Improve with a few days exposure to ambient air (dry Jerez, Vin Jaune, Madeira, Savennieres, lots of sweet dessert and intense wines).
We have discussed this ad nauseam (sp?) and the answer is freeze it.
Follow Anthony Hall’s lead and mix them up in a Magnum, recork and throw it in the cellar for 5 years.
Worried about sanitation with old 375ml bottles? Seriously? Rinse it with hot water from the tap (or boiling water if you’re REALLY freaked) & it’s essentially sterile.
Simply recorking & throwing it in the refrigerator works as well as anything (and I’ve tried the Vacuvin- it sucks- & the inert gas).
Ah, an old topic.
Let me pile on:
-Vacuvin kills the aromas.
-Pouring into 375mls works, even better if put in the fridge. Never thought to sterilize mine.
-Some people use small glass marbles to fill up the half-full bottle. That always seemed like the ideal solution, though I haven’t tried it. (No, I haven’t lost my marbles.)
We’ve tried them all and found the most efficient is refrigeration, unless you plan on keeping it for 3 months before trying it again. Most of the time we have a Haley’s Corker in the bottle instead of a cork. Stelvans are no problem, screw them back on and throw them in the refrigerator. (Caveat, we keep our refrigerator on the cold side.) Carrie can tell if a wine has been gassed and occasionally, I can too. Some white wines just fade quickly, no matter what you do, but the bigger reds seem to hold up pretty well when refrigerated.
I think the answer is this: there are a number of things you can do, each of which has some tendency to help retard the aging. Doing more or all of them gives you the most protection. Your menu of choices, in order from most value to least, is probably:
- Freezing (good tool for if you have a half bottle left and are leaving town or otherwise won’t get to it for awhile).
- Filling a half bottle or other smaller bottle (e.g. Fiji water bottle) all the way to full right after opening the 750ml
- Putting the leftover wine into the fridge
- Argon gas
- Vacuvin
- Recorking the 750 ml
If you just opened a 2004 Bordeaux and it will hold up well or maybe even improve with a lot more air, and you plan to drink the other half tomorrow, you might just recork the 750ml and let it go. If you opened something that you want to evolve/erode as little as possible and/or something you’re not going to get back to for several days, then you might pour a full 375 or Fiji bottle, recork/screw shut, even top off with a blast of Argon or a Vacuvin (though that probably makes little or no difference), and put it in the fridge. And various gradations in between.
We use 375s all the time and have a whole supply of corks from NV port and cognac bottles to seal them with. Then they go in the fridge. If you pour the wine into the tenth immediately after opening it, you’re good for 48 hours on a wine that’s been aged 7 years or so. Any longer than that and you’ll notice some differences.
As for cleaning, its a no brainer. Rinse the 375 ml thoroughly and repeatedly with hot water, then stick it upside down on the bottom rack of your dishwasher on one of the spikes (prferably next to the silverware basket). Make sure you use heated dry.
May be romantic delusion but given that chemical reactions are exponential with temperature just putting the wine into your 15 degree cellar works better for me than the fridge in terms of preserving whatever the wine was the night before. I understand why 15 degrees is better than room temperature but can’t explain why the fridge seems to rob the wine of charm.
Cellar works too, but fridge is better if it’s more than a day or so, at least in my experience. 1/2 bottle in the fridge, immediately poured and corked. You do beat some air into the wine as you pour, but the fridge holds down the reaction rate and I’ve kept wine for several weeks that way. The vacuum is nice but essentially useless and actually illogical. To the degree you put the air pressure out of balance with the liquid, you’ll simply suck gas out of the liquid until it’s back in balance.
However, that’s all old-school.
I thought everyone was using this thing these days:
The nice thing about the cellar is that it comes out closer to drinking temperature–the refrigerator requires too much warm up time for those of us who don’t plan ahead for a glass or two of wine.
+1. I use a couple of old screw top saki bottles for this. Rinse the split (and cap) with boiling water if you feel the need.
This storage method works best with higher acid wines, with some improving a day or more after pouring up IMO.
Fridge or counter or cellar storage hasn’t made a difference in my experience. I agree that the fridge would make it too cold to serve with out a warm up period
For those using the 375 bottle approach, is there a good way to get the wine in without aerating it significantly? Funnels seem to spray the wine everywhere in the bottle. Perhaps the modest aeration isn’t a concern?
Hold the receiving bottle on a slant and pour down the side. Even if you’re using a funnel. But you can’t avoid beating some air into it. The thing is, the reactions are slowed in the fridge, so put it in there right away. Unless it was sherry, I’d never take an open bottle out a second day, but doing it that way, I had no worries about taking the second half out to show customers even several days later.