Wine lovers get excited by the prospect of aging wine. We love the idea of buying something and then watching as the value increases year after year. But can old wine make you sick? Contrary to popular belief, not all wine benefits from aging. The problem is, many wine lovers romanticize the idea of keeping an extra special bottle for a suitable occasion.
Most wines are produced to be drunk straight away. As most bottles of wine are sealed with a cork, within time the cork will deteriorate, and oxygen will begin to seep into the wine. This causes oxidation, which is bad news for your wine. Our advice? Drink your store-bought wine soon after buying it.
However, if you really want to buy a bottle for aging we have a few pieces of advice. Can old wine make you sick? No, not really. However, the liquid that could come out of that bottle may make you feel sick from the color and smell alone. The taste will also be very unpleasant. If you have aged a bottle of wine, you may want to give it a thorough once-over before pouring yourself a glass. Look out for these key signs your wine has gone bad. If a bottle of red wine like Pinot Noir or Merlot has gone bad, those lovely purple hues will have started to change.
It is enjoyed young and fresh, and aged and complex … but very rarely is a bottle left unfinished, and almost never have I had to think about how long I might be able to keep an open bottle for before worrying about it spoiling. Perhaps you like to drink wine less frequently, or like to pour yourself a small glass before bed, curled up with a book or a movie. When properly sealed in a bottle, either with a fully inserted cork, or with a properly closed screw cap, wine is famed for being able to last a very long time indeed.
Plenty of cellars around the world store traditionally corked bottles for decades, deliberately aging them in order to improve their characteristics and increase their value.
Bottles of wine are left in last wills, handed down through generations, sold and resold at auction over long periods of time — all thanks to the wonderful alchemy that is part and parcel of aging wine. This almost magical process sees tiny amounts of oxygen seep through the cork over the years; gradually, delicately softening the tannins in fine red wines, breaking down the acidity and allowing the myriad flavors and aromas come forward and dance their merry dance.
Leave any bottle of wine open for too long, however, and too much oxidation takes place. The wine becomes flat and muddy, and completely unpalatable. This can and will happen, even if you stopper or cork the bottle once opened. This is what we want to avoid, but how long does an open bottle of wine last before oxidation occurs?
Most wines are absolutely fine to drink after a couple of days of being opened, so long as the bottle neck is stoppered in some way which stops further air coming in. If you want to make your wines last longer, there are plenty of accessories that can help you keep it fresh. Professional bottle stoppers will all work with varying effectiveness, but none of them will completely halt the degradation of the wine once the bottle has been opened.
Keeping your wine in a fridge helps too, as low temperatures will slow chemical changes, and keeping your wine in the dark is a good idea, as well. If you are the kind of person who likes to savor their wines slowly, then red wines are definitely the ones for you. As time passes, the acids and tannins that make up the structure and body of the red wines will start to break down after the bottle has opened.
How sure are you about the plan to drink this particular bottle? We have some helpful tips on chilling wine in a hurry. Wine is like us; in youth, we will recover more easily after an accident but when we are older, recovery will be more difficult.
Wine corks can also harden if a bottle is in the fridge for too long, which may allow air through and give you oxidation problems. A temperature-controlled wine fridge will naturally give you an advantage by helping you to maintain constant, ideal conditions for storage more easily.
Original article published in with comments from Paolo Basso. Updated for Decanter. Home Learn Advice. A wine fridge could help keep your bottles at a consistent temperature.
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