How long does wine keep when opened?

MissB_2

Once openend you can use it for cooking past the two days it would be suitabel for drinking. It varies with where you keep it, just throw it away once it smells vingary.

B
x x x

princessamy86

I've cooked with white wine that I've opened, drunk maybe 3 quarters of the bottle, then it's gone a bit vinegary a few days later-it tastes fine. I've drunk red after weeks! It's fine, just have a tiny sip and see if makes you screw your face up lol. It's not killed me yet! And I didn't notice any difference in taste after cooking with it.

Generali

Justcoll wrote: »

This goes for both unopened and opened bottles.

For unopened - how long will a bottle of reasonable quality red keep for?

For unopened, assuming it's been sealed with a vacuum stopper, how long would you keep it for 1) drinking and 2) cooking?

Any advice appreciated (apart from suck it and see);) I'm thinking safety rather than taste.

Sealed with a vacum stopper and the vacum applied, probably a couple of weeks.

Never cook with anything you wouldn't drink. If you won't drink it, why would you eat it!

Nelski

I guess it all depends on what you mean by reasonable? Not sure why people are saying 1 or 2 years when some red wines can be laid down for decades and just get better if you tell us what the wine is we may be able to help more

Once a wine is opened and exposed to oxygen then it really needs to be drunk within 24 hours. At first the oxygen makes the wine taste better but after a number of hours oxidation sets in and you end with nasty vinegar.

In Chateau Nelski wine rarely sees the next day (I use oxidation as an excuse of course:D) but if by chance there is some left it goes in a sauce or the bin.

Justcoll

Nicki wrote: »

Unopened wines - depend very much on the quality of the grapes/kind of wine when bottled. You can't necessarily tell this from the price. Some red wines are meant to be laid down, and would easily keep 20 years+, some are meant to be drunk young (eg Beaujolais nouveau) and would start to deteriorate within a year. Also it varies from year to year even for the same grape from the same vineyard depending on how good a year it has been for winemaking. A good wine guide would probably help you judge. A wine which has been kept for a little too long will not be as good to drink but there is quite a large degree of latitude before it actually becomes undrinkable.

For opened wines, it depends on how you seal them, and also on the wine itself. For a wine which needs a lot of time to breathe before it tastes at its best, I've drunk it up to 2 weeks after opening when its been sealed with a vacuum pump. Other wines which don't need time to breathe would only last a few days or so. If you are sealing it with the cork, or its a screw top bottle, you should aim to drink it within 48 hours in my view.

Many thanks for such a well thought out reply. Appreciated!

Justcoll

pol wrote: »

I agree with Nicki. Unopened it will keep for about a year or two roughly.

Once opened, if you can't drink it within a couple of days, you can freeze it in ice cube trays and use it for cooking.

pol

Oooh! I never thought about freezing it. Great stuff. Thanks.

Justcoll

Nelski wrote: »

I guess it all depends on what you mean by reasonable? Not sure why people are saying 1 or 2 years when some red wines can be laid down for decades and just get better if you tell us what the wine is we may be able to help more .

I splurged out on some bottles of 2007 Hardys Crest Cabernet Sauvignon when it was half-price in Sainsburys. I think the original price was a tenner if that helps - but an earlier poster said price wasn't necessarily a guide.

I'm not a wine buff; I just try one and if I like it I buy more.
For some reason white wine gives me heartburn apart for some reason, Chablis, which I love (but this can depend on where I get it

Nelski wrote: »

Once a wine is opened and exposed to oxygen then it really needs to be drunk within 24 hours. At first the oxygen makes the wine taste better but after a number of hours oxidation sets in and you end with nasty vinegar.

Hmm ..... wonder if it'd be good for decaling the kettle? I hate waste.

Nelski wrote: »

In Chateau Nelski wine rarely sees the next day (I use oxidation as an excuse of course:D) .

:rotfl:

Nicki

I don't actually know anything about that wine, but the supermarkets tend only to put their expensive wines on half price offers when they know that they will not keep for very long. As a rule of thumb if you buy a supermarket half price offer I think you should probably be looking to drink it within the next 6 months to year max. You certainly couldn't normally expect to lay it down for a couple of years.

Does that mean you have lots of wine which needs using up? I feel an MSE party coming on _party_

Justcoll

Nicki wrote: »

Does that mean you have lots of wine which needs using up? I feel an MSE party coming on _party_

Now you're talking!

Seriously - would anyone on this forum be interested in a meet this summer?

I realise get-togethers would have to be regional but for starters, I live in Berkshire. We could meet up at a pub somewhere with a large garden.

Any takers?

dktherapy

Well, I have bought red wine in boxes because it says that it lasts for six months - not true, because in our house, it has only lasted for 2 days!

Perhaps I am a bit of a philistine in this regard, but for me, an "investment" in wine is buying 3 bottles rather than one when xxx Supermarket has Hardy's Crest or similar at a reduced price. (I would say half price, but lately the price of this particular red has gone from £6.99 to £9.99 at my local Txxxo, so the promotion has gone from £3.49 to £4.99!!)

And yes, if there *was* any left over, I believe that freezing in ice cube trays is the way to go, so you can just pop one or two cubes into any casserole/stew which needs it. Larger leftovers can be sent to me c/o MSE please!