does wine go bad

I was asked the other day if wine goes bad.. if someone opens a bottle of wine and forgets it in the fridge for lets say a month, will it have turned to vinegar or is this a myth? or does it simply just loose all its flavour? can it be used in a simple marinade?

..chris

Reply to
Chris Lake
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Reply to
Nils Gustaf Lindgren

Hi Chris

a sweet wine will keep for a very long time after opening.

a dry wine stored in the fridge? I always thought that acetification was inhibited at cold temperatures (Mark?). The non-SO2 crowd here recommend storing their wines under 14C at all times, maybe that has to do with inhibiting acetobacter. If you use an inert gas then acetification would be impossible, in theory at least (Mark? Isn't acetobacter aerobic?).

I have never had a wine turn to vinegar.

Mike

Mike Tommasi, Six Fours, France email link

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Reply to
Mike Tommasi

Hi folks This is my first time on this news group. I have had white wines oxidize rather quickly in the fridge to the point I do not leave them more and a few days before finishing the bottle. I have had reds go quite rank and fit only for pouring down the drain. So yes wines will spoil (go bad) if left opened on the fridge. I would definitley say a month is too long to leave open wine in the fridge. I only use freshly opened wines as marinades. I agree with the other person who though poorly of using older open wine for meat tenderizing.

Robert Patrick, Canada

Reply to
patrickrj

Not ON the fridge, the question was IN the fridge.

Agreed, they WILL oxidize. But is this all bad? How bad is it, it is just oxidized, it is not poison. I think an oxidized wine might bring some nutty flavours to meat in a marinade. I have never tried this, but I would not assume outright that it is going to ruin the meat. I bet you that spare ribs in a marinade of oxidized wine and some spice like ginger would taste great.

And say the wine even went to vinegar, is that so much different from the old practice of using verjus? There are plenty of good reasons to use vinegar in a marinade.

I have never tried, but unless you have experienced this you cannot really claim for sure that it will be "bad" a priori.

Mike

Mike Tommasi, Six Fours, France email link

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Reply to
Mike Tommasi

Mike,

Sorry the "on the fridge" was a typo not caught. I agree that some wines oxidize to a pleasant state and may be discribed as Nutty , Buttery etc. Yes I have used vinegar in marinades. I guess spoil and or bad is quite a personal or subjective word choice. The reds I poured down the drain were quite vile, one was a Merlot that went skunky, like beer does. I do not know what happened to it. Do you use that term? Skunks are black and white rodents that spray you with a vile musk if you frighten them. Aging beer produces the same chemical therefore the term. No I do not drink skunky beer although it may not kill one. It is repulsive and gets even with me personnally(Indigestion). In other words I did drink a bottle of skunky beer once and have taken my body's advise. I personally have not had wine turn to vinegar in or out of my fridge, however a friend of mine who makes his own has had his homemade reds go to vinegar. He blames it on fruit flies contaminating the wine while it is sitting in the Oak barrel.

Take care

Robert Patrick

Reply to
patrickrj

I have had two bottles go skunky. Not recommended for cooking, unless you are making skunk roast ;-)

Doubt it was the fruitflies. ;-)

Mike

Mike Tommasi, Six Fours, France email link

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Reply to
Mike Tommasi

Hi Chris

I've seen a number of excellent answers, which I'd like to expand up> I was asked the other day if wine goes bad..

It all depends upon the wine.

Some very tannic wines will keep and improve for a week or two. Some delicate whites will deteriorate over night. Fortified (and) sweet wines will keep a long time as Michael T said.

In his excellent reply, Patrick RJ (Hi patrick, welcome!) points this out too. What I want to expend upon is the time scale, and a little of the chemistry. A month is very long. two weeks is around the limit beyond which the wine is likely to have deteriorated to a point when it is umpleasant. Paradoxically, if a wine had been affected by acetobacter, kept at room temperature and exposed to plenty of air, to the point of changing to vinegar, it might well do better as a marinade, than one kept sealed in a fridge, where it has simply died.

But when you talk about "going bad", I think it is worth pointing out that we merely mean that it tastes unpleasant. It doesn't become dangerous to consume. So, if your friend wants to they can always taste the stuff. If it's not rank, but merely lacking flavour a bit (which is what usually happens) then s/he _could_ perfectly well cook with it, though the results would be less good than if they had used a good wine that tasted delicious. If the wine is oxidising to vinegar, then it will be excellent as marinade, I know several recipes which use both vinegar and red wine in marinades. All the best

Ian

Reply to
john shaw

Virtually all chemical reactions are slowed at cold temperatures. In the case of acetobacter, it may very well also go dormant at fridge temp (which, after all, is close to what fridges are designed to do).

The non-SO2 crowd here

Yup. Acetobacter is indeed aerobic and probably won't even grow in the absence of oxygen (hence the reason why wine is aged in tightly sealed containers).

Me neither. From what I've read in this group, it actually takes some effort to get a wine to turn to vinegar.

Mark Lipton

Reply to
Mark Lipton

patrickrj wrote: The reds I poured down the drain were

Wines can certainly be "skunky" from winemaking faults, but I'd expect that to be noticeable from the outset and not show up later.

Do you use that term? Skunks are black and white

I think it's fair to say that Mike knows what a skunk is. After all, Pepe Le Pew was French, non? ;-) BTW, where'd you get the idea that skunks are rodents? They're actually in the same family (mustelidae) as weasels and otters, in an entirely different order (carnivora) than rodents (rodentia). Of course, none of this really has to do with wine...

I personally have not had wine turn to

Volatile acidity (aka vinegary wines) is a winemaking fault. Your friend should probably make sure his apparatus is cleaned thoroughly and that he adds enough metabisulfite when he stops fermentation. We wine consumers don't really have to worry much about wine turning to vinegar. It does many things when it sits open, but turning to vinegar is not normally among them in my experience.

Mark Lipton

Reply to
Mark Lipton

In order: It may not turn to vinegar but it could turn to something worse. 8^P~~~|

It will definitely have lost its "freshness".

You _could_ use it in a marinade, but my general rule is to not use any wine for cooking that I would not wish to drink. Food is costly, and we all deserve the best - right?

BTW, wine _never_ spoils in such a way that it can poison you. It may taste dreadful, but it won't hurt you. Wine does not support the growth of pathogens.

Tom S

Reply to
Tom S

No.

No.

Yes.

It won't be as fresh and not as good as freshly opened, but that's all.

M.

Reply to
Michael Pronay

I've found bottles with maybe 6-8 ounces in them and just the cork crammed into the neck in the fridge after some time and have found them vinegary. I've taken to NOT putting reds back in the fridge but leaving them out. This reminds me to consume them (or dump them into the stew) in short order rather than letting them "culture" in the back of the fridge.

Reply to
Ron Natalie

That never ever happened to me - and I'm serious in wine drinking for over 30 years.

M.

Reply to
Michael Pronay

I haven't had a wine go "skunky". I also have not had them change to undrinkable within 48 hours, like some claims I have heard. IME they just get progressively more vinegary, slowly over the period of 1-4 weeks. The refrigerator seems to slow this down. Freezing stops it, but can also change the wine (sometimes, not always) by causing a sediment to form after thawing, and the wine flavor is a little different (but not bad). This might be tartaric acid or similar. But some frozen wines were fine. I suggest you experiment with refrigeration of open bottles and also with freezing (wine that has been already opened of course.)

Reply to
jeffc

Mark,

You are right, I like little critters but do not know much about them. My Petersons guide to little fury friends is at our farm in Wiarton Willie territory and not in town where I am now. the book and I are 245 Km appart. Weasels spray too!

I think you are very right about my friends wine making. Hygiene is not his priority! He drinks his wine when it is cloudy. He does not decant it but just pours a flak from the barrel. He does take the barrel apart and has been known to scrape and retoast it. but it is a very old 20 plus years very reused barrel. He is basically the sole fan of his wine. Do you have the picture. I accept a glass when I really feel brave.

I make my wine from 30 bottle kits. I work in clean surroundings. I have not had a misadventure in the five years of making wine this way. I enjoy it. it is fun. It costs me about $4.00 a bottle.

Take care

Bob Patrick

Reply to
patrickrj

The wine oxidizes (albeit slowly), but does not turn into vinegar. These are different pairs of shoes.

M.

Reply to
Michael Pronay

While on the subject,

Do you know the difference between a weasel and a stoat? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . One is "weasely" distinguished, . . . . And the other is "stoatally" different !!!!

Sorry - :-)))

Reply to
st.helier

As will delicate reds.

If a wine is teetering on being over the hill, a night in the bottle will push it right over the edge. (Not sure whether that metaphor is mixed or not.)

Reply to
Steve Slatcher

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