Have you ever opened a bottle of red wine, and <gasp> didn't finish it?
Such events may occur in my house rarely, but they do occur nonetheless.
“What do I do with this open bottle of wine?” is asked, at some point, by wine drinkers everywhere.
Air is a friend to wine. For a while.
You know that a bottle of wine really “opens up” when air gets introduced to the wine. It enhances the flavor and brings the wine to life.
But, there are diminishing returns.
After a while, the more time the wine has with air, the worse it gets. So, that's the problem with opening a bottle of wine, and leaving it overnight for drinking the next night or soon thereafter: The wine begins to “go bad”.
Stop the air overnight.
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[/custom_frame_left] In the past, I've tried preserving unfinished bottles of wine with varying degrees of success.
I've tried using a device that reseals the bottle while removing any remaining air. (Think “space bags” for bottles.) You pump the air out of the bottle, leaving the special topper to keep it sealed. The results were okay.
I've gone the old-fashioned route, too, by re-corking the bottle with its original cork. That's often done at a restaurant if you haven't finished the bottle and your state allows you to bring the unfinished wine home, like we can in Michigan. It gets the job done and keeps the wine from spilling if the bottle falls over. (Tip: replace the cork upside down.)
And, of course, I've used the traditional wine topper, which is substantially easier to temporarily close a bottle overnight, than trying to re-cork it.
Quick side note: I've ammassed quite a collection of wine bottle toppers. These have been given to me over the years by friends and family who know I love wine. (They just don't realize that I'll probably never use the wine topper, as a bottle is rarely left unfinished!)
What if it's too late?
What happens if you've simply missed your window of opportunity and the wine has simply gone bad?
Smell it. The wine smells like vinegar, right?
Taste it. It's just as bad, right?
After a while, despite your efforts to reseal a bottle of delicious red wine, the wine will still turn to yuck. And, if you forgot to close the bottle? That wine is gross before you get out of bed the next morning.
To Dump or Not To Dump.
First, I say “dump”.
To me, it's as simple as that.
If the wine's life is over, I'll mourn the loss, sure.
I'll remember fondly the time we had together, sipping, laughing and enjoying one another's company.
I'll go through the stages of grief: Denial, Anger, and at some point, Acceptance.
…so then I'll dump the nasty wine into the sink and be done with it!
However, if the wine is still good, you may want to consider an alternative like, making Sangria out of the wine, or make wine ice cubes from leftover wine.
Can wine be revived?
I ran into this new product today in a Google Offer.
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At first, I thought the offer was $19 for 3 bottles of wine that's normally $59. I was intrigued and considered buying it.
Until I learned that the offer was not for wine at all. It was for 3 bottles of a product that claims to “revive stale wine with just a few drops”.
No, I'm not going to buy it.
No, I'm not suggesting you do either.
To me, this sounds disgusting.
But, I would be interested to know if anyone has ever used this, or any other product like this, with any success.
In the title of this post I ask, “Does this wine rescue kit work?”.
My answer: I do not know. Do you?
I would love to hear from you, though, if you have any experience with this kit from WineImprovement.com or any other “wine rescue kit”.
