Lit it "take the air"

Oxygen allows a wine to open up, it allows volatilising of aroma compounds.

Decanting is a popular practice, which involves pouring the wine in such a manner as to allow maximum exposure to the air. Also as the name indicates, it allows decanting off any sediment that may be in the bottle

I thought wine came in bottles, not cans... shouldn't it be debottling? lol

It may taste better the next day, but how many days before it tastes worse if it takes a few days to finish the bottle? I just read an article about a guy who invented and now sells a device to put your wine bottle in that will blanket the wine with argon so it won't spoil. He claims wine will go bad in one week after being opened. I have taken several weeks to finish a bottle and have never been able to detect any change. Wonder how long it takes before the average person can notice a change in an opened but stoppered bottle?

It's a very common procedure. L:letting oxygen at wine causes it to age rapidly. Since we often drink wine before it has aged properly, the quick aging can only help. Also, reds should be drunk near room temperature and the half hour delay insures that that objective will be met. Ever notice that left over wine often tastes better the next day ? It's that exposure to air that does it.

Regards, Bill

notice the changes due to air exposure pretty fast. If you just use a regular cork to close an open bottle, the changes will happen faster than if you use the vacuum stopper thingie.

Pp

Only if you do it without inclining or "canting" the bottle. ;-)

Bill wrote: Also, reds should be drunk near room temperature ....

Assuming room temp. is about 65 deg. F. Ever been served room temp. reds during a heat wave duringg summer???

[in the voice of Foamy , the squirrel] What the ****'s _wrong_ with you? You're taking *days* to finish a bottle of wine? ;^D

I just read an article about a

I don't know what you've been drinking, but it must be port or some other sweet, high alcohol wine - or possibly sherry or madeira. Nothing else that I know of will take that much air exposure without fading noticeably or just plain spoiling.

Wonder how long it

That depends a lot on ambient conditions, as well as the age of the wine in question - not to mention the direction of that "difference".

Your average bottle of ~$7-12 red wine from Publix, Pavillions, Whole Foods or the like? Figure it'll probably be OK the next day if you remembered to replace the cork - maybe two days to ~ a week if you corked it and stuck it in the 'fridge.

Tom S

This probably is blasphemous, but I've taken to using the el-cheapo (thin wall) 16oz bottled water bottles for the leftovers from my fifths.

I pour in the wine, put the lid on loosely, squeeze until wine just starts to seep out the lid and crank 'er tight before sucking air back in, then put it in the fridge. I couldn't tell the difference from a fresh bottle after a month in the fridge.

Gene

Tom S wrote:

An anecdote on the subject. I was visiting with Paul who posts on this site a few years ago. We had had several bottles of excellent wine through the evening. Then he opened a bottle of dry red that I really did not care for. I sipped at it a while and we decided it was time to prepare for bed. About an our later as I was about to hit the sack I picked up my glass, still half full and decided it would not be polite to poor it out. I sipped it and it had completely changed it's character. It was really very good. The next day we tried it again and found that it definitely better for a couple of hours of air contact.

How much air contact is good? That depends on the wine, the amount of time in bulk age and in bottle, and very significantly, how much sulfite is in it. Some may require no time or only 20 min. Others may improve over night.

Ray