Vino Sfuso
How long can you keep an opened bottle of wine before it goes bad?
I often hear many people say a day or two.
There also seems to be a plethora of gadgets and pumps designed to protect our precious wine from wine’s arch enemy, oxygen.
Personally, I have at times kept an open bottle of red for a week without using any gadget and only making sure to cork it tightly.
Granted, each day the wine lost some of its original quality; but was it still drinkable? Yes.
The same with whites. Many times, I have enjoyed a week-old white from the fridge with dinner.
In Italy, so many families go to local wineries or wine shops with their 50 liter demijohns and fill them up with what is called “vino sfuso,” usng a nozzle attached to a large tank. (See the picture for an example.) The same with many local osterias and trattorias. Quite often, this is the wine that’s served from a ceramic pitcher or a glass carafe when we order the house red or white.
My point in this short posting is that bottled wine can still be enjoyed for more than a day or two after it’s been opened. Just be sure that you cork it tightly, keep it away from any heat source, and for whites, keep them in the fridge. You may even find that some of your reds that were a little tight the first day you opended may even taste better after a few days.
Could we perhaps be too obsessed with freshness?
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Some young reds seem to be better a day or two after opening to me. My impression is that once it is opened the aging process accelerates, but that is not always a bad thing. I do vacuum pump whites and keep them in the refrigerator though to preserve freshness.
Exactly; that accelerated aging is why it’s often a good idea to give young big red wines some breathing time before serving. Also splash decanting can give wines some “instant aging” as well.
I’m like you, reds usually just sit on the counter with an inverted cork. Whites, when there is any left, get the pump treatment. Have a friend who would actually take the leftover wines from a wine tasting and simply combine them. Sometime not until the next morning. One bottle for whites, one for reds. She insists they would usually taste pretty good.