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After a bottle of wine has been opened, the wine comes into contact with air. So it is best to
store the remainder of the bottle upright, to minimize the surface area of the wine that is
coming into contact with the air.
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Once opened, wine will remain in a drinkable condition for two days for delicate whites or
three days for rich reds, as long as the bottle has been resealed. You should make sure that
the seal is firm by checking the stopper.
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Special stoppers that keep wine sparkling and Champagne bubbling for one or two days after
opening, can be bought.
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When stored correctly, unopened white wines can keep well for up to two years. Full bodied
reds (unopened) will age well for ten years and dessert wines (unopened) will age well for up
to twenty years.
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When you buy a bottle of wine, you should transfer it to a suitable storage location immediately
(if you are not going to store it in your wine cooler).
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Cheaper bottles of wine will not age as well as more expensive ones.
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To make the most of the bouquet and taste of your wine, never fill more than half a glass at a
time. It will also help if the shape of your wine glass is appropriate for your wine. The size and
shape of your wine glass’s bowl will determine the intensity and complexity of the bouquet.
The stem should be long enough to allow you to avoid hand contact with the bowl of the glass
and should be tulip-shaped or tapered at the top.
Wine storage problems
Corking -
a tiny percentage of bottled wine (about 1%) will suffer from this. The cork reacts with
the wine and gives it a musty, unpleasant taste. It is the most common wine storage problem and
is caused by harmless bacteria growing on the cork. As unfortunate as this is, there is nothing to
do but to discard all of the wine in the affected bottle. This is not to be confused with small
fragments of cork floating in the wine itself, which will not impair the flavour.
Oxidisation -
when wine has been opened and left for longer than a day; it tends to lose its aroma
and colour, giving an overall flat taste. The only way to avoid this, it to either drink the wine on the
same day it was opened or to use a vacuum device specially designed for removing oxygen from
opened wine bottles. If you use such a device, the wine should still be consumed shortly afterwards.
Ullage -
this is loss of wine from the bottle by evaporation or leakage. Signs of ullage include wine
seeping around the cork, a protruding cork or a stained label. It can happen if the bottle has been
allowed to get too warm. The wine may still be drinkable, if the leakage was recent; however, you
should be aware that if the wine cools down again, contraction can cause more air to be sucked
into the bottle and result in further deterioration.
Slight effervescence in still wine -
this isn’t really a problem with the way the wine has been stored,
but as a result of incomplete malolactic fermentation before the wine was bottled. A good way to
get rid of the effervescence is to let the wine breathe. Alternatively you can use a bottle vacuum
device, after about five minutes the effervescence will vanish.
Sediment -
this is not normally a problem, however both red and white wines can produce sediment
after a number of months in a bottle. The sediment consists of tartrate crystals and is totally
