Signature Cellars | How to Re-cork Your Wine Bottles
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How to Re-cork Your Wine Bottles

cork of a wine bottle

13 Nov How to Re-cork Your Wine Bottles

People rarely, if ever, consume an entire bottle of wine at once. Unless you’re hosting a dinner party of some sort, you’ll find that about half or even more of your wine would be left over, ready to spoil and turn into vinegar at any moment. The general rule of the thumb is to consume the wine as soon as possible. With a little care, your wine will last for about a week but after that you can’t really expect it to retain its flavour.

Bear in mind, the older the vintage is, the sooner it’s likely to spoil. However, this doesn’t mean that your wine can’t be stored and consumed over the course of a couple of days. Here are the steps to preserve the wine and how to re-cork your wine bottles properly.

Re-Corking While Drinking

The reason wine bottles are sealed with a cork is to limit the wine’s exposure to oxygen. Oxygen will oxidize the wine and spoil it. The less your wine comes in contact with oxygen, the better. To ensure this, you can re-cork the bottle after every pour into your glass. Most people won’t bother, letting the wine breathe.

This won’t be a problem if you intend to consume the entire bottle of wine. In this case, letting the wine breathe shouldn’t be a problem. However, if you intend to consume it over a period of a few days, you’ll need to reduce its exposure to oxygen and extend its life. Re-corking between pours should do the trick.

Re-Corking After Drinking

If you don’t re-cork between pours, it’s likely that the cork won’t fit into the bottle once again easily. It usually takes considerable effort to plug it back in. Some people reverse the cork and plug it in. Using the side that was exposed to the air and not the wine can be risky.

You don’t know what type of foreign contaminants you’ll be introducing into the wine. It’s simply a better idea to plug the right side back in and store it in the refrigerator. You’ll be able to consume the wine for nearly a week, if you’re fortunate and careful.

Half Bottles

Half bottles are one of the most effective ways to store wine. All you need to do is pour the remaining wine into a smaller, half wine bottle and place the cork in it. There will be less room for air in the bottle, the cork would fit, and your wine will be preserved for a while longer. Most wine connoisseurs will keep half bottles in their cellars or cupboards for opened wines. It’s easy and reduces the chances of your wine being exposed to oxygen.

Re-Corking Mechanisms

There are several inventive people out there looking for solutions that would preserve the opened wines for longer periods of time. Some of these mechanisms are as follows:

  • The Coravin, which inserts a hypodermic needle into the cork, flushes argon gas into the bottle to build up pressure, allows you to pour wine with ever letting oxygen enter the bottle.
  • Vac-U-Vin is a small pump that removes oxygen from the bottle and has a rubber stopper to seal the bottle and keep the wine healthy.
  • Inert gases that can be sprayed into the bottle and acts as a barrier between the wine and oxygen.

Re-corking will have no effect if you don’t take precautions to preserve the freshness of the wine. You can do so by keeping the opened wine in the refrigerator, away from sunlight, and in an upright position. This would protect your wine from oxidization.

For more information about unique wine storage solutions, you can call Signature Cellars on 02 9340 7515 or use this contact form to get in touch with us. We’ll be pleased to assist you.

Thanks for reading,
Neil Smallman
Signature Cellars
02 9340 7515

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