After you open a bottle, how long is wine good for? This is the biggest question we get on wine preservation.The short answer is 3 days. The real answer is, it depends a lot on the style of wine and how you preserve it.
The reason wine goes bad is because after you remove the cork, the wine is introduced to oxygen. This won’t hurt you, but it does oxidize the wine, like when you leave an apple on the counter. It loses the interesting, fruity aromas that make the wine tasty!
Some wines are naturally more prone to oxidation than others. Tannin and alcohol help to preserve wine, which is why a young red wine is likely to last longer than a mature red wine, which has lost a lot of its tannin. Sugar is also a preservative, so the shelf life of sweet wines is much longer than a normal table wine.
So, how long is wine good for? There are nuances, but in a nutshell:
- Sparkling wines are good for 1 day
- Light white & rose wines are good for 3-5 days
- Full-bodied white wines are good for 3-4 days
- Light or mature reds are good for 4-5 days
- Full-bodied red wines are good for 4-6 days
- Sweet wines are good for 1-3 weeks
Wine Preservation
There are ways to make your wine stay good longer, especially related to wine preservation. If you don’t want to buy any products to help keep your wine fresh, there are a couple of helpful techniques you can use at home. First, simply re-corking the wine and placing the bottle in the fridge will help extend the life of your wine for at least one day more. Secondly, you can pour your wine into a glass mason jar or other sealable glass container. Resealing your wine and placing it in the refrigerator helps protect the wine from oxidation. Finally, you can visit our blog post about wine preservation tools to learn more!
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