Now we all want to know what is the best method of preserving red wine after the bottle is opened. Let's say we don't finish the bottle the evening that it is opened. Normally, the FOLLOWING evening it is still "OK".. But the next evening after that (48 hours later), normally its gone bad. There are a few options out there. The gas aerosol containers (that normally sell for $9). Nitrogen systems (that start at $70). And refrigerating the red wine and then allowing it to warm up before drinking. And, the vacume pump to suck out the air. Anyone have any input as to what they use?
"Cactus888" in news: snipped-for-privacy@mb-m14.aol.com...
As usual this topic has history on the wine newsgroup, from many perspectives. I find it from 1990 on Google (Craig Gleason article -- he posted a lot in those days -- under his real name, of course, like most people for most of newsgroup history) and I recall earlier articles (remember, only a tiny fraction of the net.wines and, especially, rec.food.drink wine postings appear in that archive).
I started using Vacu-Vin (tm) vacuum-stopper system regularly 15? years ago and still keep kits in the trunk (UK boot) of my car, near the highway flares, en-cas-d'urgence. (Less useful, by the way, than the stack of disposable spit-cups I also keep in my car. Impromptu or genteel wine tastings in the US may lack a crachoir or open ground.) I don't use the Vacu-Vin often these days, more on that presently. (In case it's unfamiliar, Vacu-Vin is soft synthetic-rubber corks with one-way sphincter valves through which you extract most of the air in the bottle with a simple pump.)
I found the Vacu-Vin effective and pragmatic (cheap and only moderately fussy) for preserving open bottles of wine, with attention to points of technique. The corks varied slightly, a few kept the seal less reliably than others. Lightly wetting the ribbed outsides of the corks before inserting helped the seal. And most important, REFRIGERATION along with sealing the bottles, whatever method you use to seal. That always retards processes that change wine.
A few years ago I found it was less trouble and still fairly effective to skip the air extraction and use re-usable flat-top corks from fortified wines (ones with wide enough cork that fit tightly into regular bottle necks). This illustrates trading maybe some performance for definitely less fuss. I appreciate that as time goes by.
Wine collectors and writers I know with experience (30+ years) tend not to use gadgets (25-year-old newbies, in contrast, revere them and get into fights over which is best). They tend to just re-cork tightly and refrigerate.
For our everyday wines, we simply re-cork and pop them into the ice-box.. The trick is to take them out early enough to get to room temp. So, in the morning I see what we drank the previous night, put it on the counter, and about 6 P.M it's about right.
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