Aerating 4-day old wine

Actually in most cases you'd be trying to reduce aeration (oxidation). Most wines aren't going to handle 4-5 days open well. If I were regularly going to drink one glass a day, I'd do one of the following:

1) see if I could find a bag-in-box wine I enjoyed, as the design (bag collapses) prevents excessive oxidation 2) buy some "airline" bottles (187 ml w/screw cap), drink, then keep bottles and fill with wine and refrigerate.

If I leave a bottle open for 3 nights worth of drinks, I pump the air out, two consecutive nights after drinking what I want. I do this whether it is a $5 bottle of DuBoeuf Pinot or a $20-25 bottle of Tuscany, either for just myself.

Dee Dee

"AndyHancock" wrote ......

With the greatest of respect, Andy, I do not believe the vacuum pump should be your "first option."

Frankly, I would follow the suggestion to get yourself some smaller wine bottles (even 2 x 375ml half bottles would do )

When you open your bottle of wine, immediately pour fill each 375 - one nearly to the top to eliminate as much air as possible - then seal (this is where screwcaps really come into their own!)

Pour your drink from the second, seal, and place in refrigerator - this is your glass for the second evening.

From experience, I do not place much faith in the pump for anything other than overnight storage - and even then, I would refrigerate.

You may get better results.

What is your opinion of inert gas? I usually follow your procedure and squirt some gas into the 2nd half. Graham

What a waste to buy those small screwtop bottles of wine. The wine that came in them was horrible and had to be thrown out in order to have these small bottles to use.

This was a PITA and discontinued after the second go-round.

Just my opinion and experience.

P.S. I just now ordered from Amazon the Venturi aerator. There is a small youtube video where it does show using it in a glass-full.

Thanks. Dee Dee

Dee wrote on Thu, 4 Jun 2009 12:55:40 -0400:

Please let me and others know what conclusions you come to. I havn't "Vinturied" that Cabernet Sauvignon yet!

It's not that complicated. Open a bottle, pour it into a glass and drink it. Put a cork in the bottle and put it in the fridge for consumption tomorrow. You can swirl the wine a bit to get a bit of oxygen in it if you prefer or you can pour it through any number of aeration devices on the market like a Vinturi. In any event, mankind has been drinking wine for centuries without a whole lot of regard for how much air time to give it before consuming it. For everyday quaffing wine it's no big deal one way or the other....