From the Tasting Room - Open Bottles

How long will a bottle of wine last after it is opened?

In our house an opened bottle seldom lasts more than 24 hours. In the Willamette Valley Vineyards Tasting Room we date every bottle as we open it. After three days we discard the wine; there is a noticeable reduction of flavor and bouquet.

At home an open bottle of wine will be fine for up to 4 days, be it red or white. Port wine, according to our Winemaker Forrest Klaffke, will be fine for up to a month. In my home I have kept open port wines for a year and have found them to still be delightful.

Air is the enemy of wine. More air is introduced into the bottle each time another glass is poured, speeding the oxidation process for the remaining wine. There are several tricks I have learned over the years to help reduce spoilage.

Keep a few empty half bottles—the 375 ml splits—on hand. If you do not plan to consume the entire bottle in one sitting, pour half the wine into the smaller split and recork it. This will minimize the amount of air in the smaller bottle and prolong the life of the remaining wine.

Flood the partially filled bottle with an inert gas such as nitrogen or CO2. This heavy gas creates a barrier between the wine’s surface and the air in the bottle. Hand vacuum pumps can remove some of the air from a bottle, too, but the pumps have limited effectiveness since all air is never removed.

When we bottle wine at Willamette Valley Vineyards, each bottle is first filled with an inert gas and then the bottle is immediately filled with wine and corked. Some of the inert gas remains in the bottle between the wine surface and the cork to insure the flavor and freshness of the wine.

You may reuse the same cork to reseal the bottle if the original cork is not damaged. Or you can get the fancy stoppers. Or you can invest in a few of the $1 rubber stoppers from the Willamette Valley Vineyards Tasting Room. The end goal is to minimize the amount of air that comes in contact with the wine.