Tips to Store Your Red Wine

09 Dec Tips to Store Your Red Wine

There’s no doubt about the fact that red wine is the favourite of collectors. If you store fine red wines in the right manner, you will be able to see them develop and age over the years. When it comes to storing reds, temperature is a vital aspect to take into consideration. Typically, these should be stored in a wine cellar at a temperature of about 12-13° C. Here are some tips on how to store your opened red wine in the right manner.

How Long Will an Opened Bottle of Red Wine Last?

Any corked bottle of red wine you’ve stored at a cold temperature will still taste fine for 3-4 days. However, if you don’t refrigerate it or keep it in a wine cooler, your open red wine will last for 2-3 days; it’s best not to consume it after that period of time. Most people prefer to finish red wine the day they open it; this is primarily because it develops a very acidic taste after two to three days and doesn’t taste good at all.

This taste change is caused by the oxidation process that takes place when the contents of the bottle are exposed to air molecules. It makes the wine lose its original flavour, and it ends up tasting very sour and bitter. In fact, you will also notice that oxidized wine looks very different from one that’s still good to drink. Oxidized wine is lack-lustre, brown and dull in appearance. Thus the key to storing opened red wine is directly related to how you can prevent it from getting oxidized.

Should I Refrigerate The Wine or Not?

This is definitely a point of debate. However, if you haven’t opened the wine, there is no need to refrigerate it and you can fridge it only after you have opened the bottle. As long as you replace the cork, the wine can stay well for up to a week in the refrigerator. This is because the lower temperature arrests the progress of oxidation. Ensure that you take it out of the refrigerator at least 30 minutes before you serve or drink it. This will help bring it back to room temperature and the wine will taste good.

Should I re-cork the wine?

This is one question that arises in everyone’s mind. Re-corking might work to a certain degree; however, it isn’t really the right method of storing red wine. It works much better when you are storing white or rose wines. These are some ways in which you can store red wine:

• It’s far better to use plastic/silicone bottle stoppers to preserve the wine in-between servings.
• You can also use a wine shield to preserve the wine. This is essentially a plastic disc that floats in the wine bottle; it creates a barrier that prevents the air molecules from interacting with the wine and it either deters or slows-down the oxidation process. It helps your wine stay in a good condition for up to 5 days from the time it’s been opened.
• Alternatively, you can also use a wine bottle vacuum pump to remove the air from the bottle; this helps you store it a little longer. The pump has a small rubber bung that has to be inserted into the bottle and you extract the air with the use of the pump. This creates a partial vacuum and helps prevent oxidation.
  It’s best to use these pumps if you don’t want to spend excessive amounts of money on sophisticated tools to extract the oxygen. However, it’s important to note that when you store wines in this manner they tend to lose their aroma much faster than any wine that you simply re-cork and store.

For any information about cellaring wine and getting custom designed wine cellars installed, call Signature Cellars at this number 02 9340 7515 or use this contact form to get in touch with us.

Thanks for reading,
Neil Smallman
Signature Cellars
1300 570 636