What factors influence the shelf life of opened wines?
Anyone who has ever stood in front of an open bottle of good wine that they didn't want to or couldn't finish has automatically asked themselves whether the wine can still be kept. And if so, how and for how long?"
This is a rather tricky question and the answer is not so easy to find, as the way in which the wine is stored and the length of time it is kept have a not inconsiderable influence on its quality. To find the answer, we therefore need to go a little further. We need to know
what type of wine it is, whether it is red, white or rosé?
whether it is a still wine or sparkling wine or even champagne?
whether the wine has been fortified, in which case it is probably a sherry, port or Madeira?
whether it plays in the regional league or the Champions League?
We also need to know how full or empty the bottle is and at what temperatures the wine can be stored.
These questions include criteria that influence the shelf life of an opened wine. But first things first.
Can wine spoil?
Perhaps we can find an answer to the question more easily if we understand what happens to a wine once it has been opened.
As we know, wine is made from the fermentation of grape juice through the involvement of bacteria that convert sugar into alcohol and CO2, which form the primary flavours and partially convert malic acid into the more pleasant lactic acid. Once the sugar has fermented, this fermentation stage is usually complete. If the wine is left to stand for a while longer, the drink of the gods develops into vinegar under the influence of other bacteria. As a rule, this is not what we want. However, this process takes quite a long time and you certainly don't want to keep your wine for that long. The answer to the question of whether a wine can spoil in the air is therefore "no".
Oxygen - the antagonist of many wines
"But what happens to the wine now?" "Why can't I just leave it and drink it later?"
Fermentation produces many aromas in the wine that we like and therefore drink the wine. These flavours come from different chemical classes, which react with atmospheric oxygen to varying degrees or with varying pleasure and thus change and with this change also the fragrant and tasty substances, which change their properties and which we then perceive differently. And we don't want that.
The more I drink from the bottle - half of it, for example - the larger the contact surface with oxygen and the faster this transformation process takes place. The volume of air above the bottle also increases, making more oxygen available for this process and also speeding up the process.
Influence of temperature
Oxygen in the air is therefore what we want to protect the wine from, as it causes the wine's ingredients to oxidise. In addition, there is another important factor that accelerates or slows down the whole process, and that is the temperature.
It doesn't matter what kind of wine it is, whether white, rosé or red, sherry or port. If you put it in the fridge, its lifespan increases considerably. There is a scientific rule of thumb that says that the speed of a chemical reaction can double or quadruple with a temperature increase of 10ºK. So if you leave the wine on the table at 24ºC instead of putting it in the fridge at 4ºC, the wine's ingredients react four to eight times faster with the oxygen in the air. In other words, a wine will keep four to eight times longer in the fridge than at room temperature. So put the wine in the fridge first!
Tricks for extending shelf life
What else can I do to make my wine last longer? Right, you can reduce the surface area by, for example, transferring the wine from the half-opened bottle into a 0.375 litre bottle. This makes the bottle full again and minimises the surface area. However, you must bear in mind that decanting is the same as decanting and the wine comes into contact with oxygen in the air, which can also change its flavour more quickly.
To get some of the air and therefore oxygen out of the bottle, it can also be pumped out of the bottle. This is done using a pump attached to a valve that prevents air from entering the bottle. However, this creates a vacuum, which removes the more volatile flavours from the wine. However, these would escape anyway, albeit not as quickly. This therefore results in a comparatively minor disadvantage. The advantage of the method, however, is that the ingredients come into contact with far less oxygen and are not altered to the extent that would happen without the negative pressure.
Shelf life of individual wine styles
Cava, Champagne & Co.
In addition to its wonderful secondary flavours, champagne lives above all from these small sparkling gas bubbles that are produced during secondary fermentation and the smaller they are, the finer they transport the aromatic substances to the trigeminal nerve to intoxicate our senses (you've noticed, a sparkling wine lover is writing here).
However, as these gas bubbles also have the disadvantage of being very volatile, not much of them usually remains in the bottle after a while. Especially if the gas space is already relatively large after half the bottle has been opened, a lot of the CO2 is transferred into the bottle when it stands and is gone the next day when it is opened for the second time.
So my recommendation: drink it! Or leave it in the fridge for a maximum of one to two days.
White wine
Like the other representatives, these cannot be lumped together. There are the light, fruity wines that lose their intense, volatile fruit relatively quickly. Keep for 2 to a maximum of 3 days after opening and store in the fridge.
Full-bodied whites such as Malvasía or Verdejo, which have matured in wooden barrels, can be kept for a little longer, 3-4 days, as they have lost most of their fruity notes and are characterised by their secondary and tertiary aromas, which are no longer quite as volatile and sensitive as the primary aromas. These wines have already had contact with oxygen in wooden barrels and can tolerate a little more of it.
Rosé
The same applies to rosé, which differs from white wine in that it has longer contact with the grape skins, which gives it its pink colour.
Red wine
Let's start again with the somewhat lighter and brighter red wines such as Pinot Noir or Garnacha. Due to their thin skin, they have less tannins, anthocyanins and phenols and are therefore somewhat lighter and lighter in flavour. They usually have a more fruity flavour than the stronger ones. These should be able to withstand 3-4 days in the fridge.
The muscular ones, such as the Tempranillos, can withstand more, i.e. 4-5 days, without having to worry about too much change in flavour.
The younger of the powerful reds (Crianzas) benefit more from a little contact with oxygen, as this makes the tannins rounder and the wines appear more pleasing to the palate. These wines can also be stored for up to a week.
Sherry, Port wine, Madeira
One category of wine that I have announced, but which I have not yet addressed, are the sherries and fortified wines.
Why do I make this distinction? Not all sherries are fortified. The Fino and also the Manzanilla have spent several months under a layer of yeast and were shielded from the surrounding air so that the oxygen in the air could not harm them. When you open these wines, you should drink them as quickly as possible and not wait too long, as the oxygen in the air robs them of their charm and changes the flavours, so that after 4-5 days to a maximum of a week they have lost a large part of their vibrancy.
The situation is different with oxidatively matured sherries such as Oloroso or Palo Cortado, which have spent several years in wooden barrels after the yeast layer (flor) has died off. These wines are so stable that they can be kept in the bottle for months after opening without hesitation.
The same applies to Portuguese Madeira. The wine is oxidised and has undergone heat treatment before it is bottled and sold. Nothing can knock it off so quickly and it can easily withstand months in an opened bottle without any loss of flavour or quality.
When we come to Portugal, we also have to talk about port wine. Port wine is divided into Ruby and Tawny, Late Bottle Vintage and Vintage.
The Tawnys (Twany and Old Tawny) are matured oxidatively in the barrel and are less sensitive to oxidative stress after the bottle has been opened and can therefore be kept for several weeks.
Ruby and Late Bottle Vintage have shorter maturation times in the barrel and continue to mature a little in the bottle. They are therefore less resistant to oxygen and should be drunk more quickly. They should survive a week in the fridge undamaged. Vintage belongs to the "prime class" of port wines, to which special attention is paid. These are wines from particularly outstanding vintages, mature for 2-3 years in the barrel and then continue to mature for decades in the bottle. As you can guess, these wines are very susceptible to the influence of oxygen and should be drunk quickly. As a rule, they are drunk on special occasions, just like the fine sherries, and will therefore rarely last longer after opening. It should not be longer than 3-4 days.
And now once again at a glance: Shelf life of wines according to wine type
The following information refers to storing the wine in the refrigerator.
Wine type | Duration |
Sparkling wine | max. 2 days |
light white wine / Rosé | 2-3 days |
Full-bodied white wine | 3-4 days |
light red wine | 3-4 days |
Full-bodied red wine | 4-5 days |
Young strong red wines | up to 7 days |
Sherry | |
Fino, Manzanilla, Amontillado | max. 2-5 days |
Oloroso, Palo Cortado, Pedro Ximénez | some weeks |
Port wine | |
Vintage | 3-4 days |
Ruby and Late Bottled Vintage (LBV) | 7 days |
Tawny | 2-3 weeks |
Summary
Once again the most important facts at a glance:
Opened wine should always be kept in the fridge. Even red wine.
If possible, the wine/air contact surface should be kept as small as possible or
the proportion of air above the surface of the wine should be reduced.
The shelf life of opened bottles increases (oxidative, intensified) or decreases (reductive) depending on the type of ageing.
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