Ask Me Help Desk - Red wine in bottle -- how long good?

Red wine in bottle -- how long good?

How long can one store red wine in the bottle and
Expect it to still be drinkable upon opening?

As long as the cork is put back each time, I guess about a month.

There are a variety of factors that come into play here, namely;
* Average room temperature
* Temperature range
* Amount of wine remaining in the bottle
* Style of wine.

Now a cooler room temp will enable the wine to be keep longer, room temp is considered to be 18C.
Small Temperature range is better, plus or minus a couple of degress.
The more air in the bottle the faster the wine will oxidise.
Big heavy reds, like Ozzie Shiraz, are more forgiving than light, Gamay, stlyes.

Now for the length of time to keep an open bottle.
From experience, I would say MAX of a week if in a fridge and no more than 3 days if at room temp, unless it's a very cold room.
After this time the wine starts to suffer from oxidisation and looses fruit and balance.
All this assumes that all you are doing is just putting the cork back in the bottle to seal it.
There are a number of "wine saving" stoppers on the market that remove excess air from the bottle in the hopes of keeping it fresher longer.
One of the better ones is called Vacuvin. If one of these systems are used you may double the keeping times.

Hope this sheds some light on your problem.

If your referring to a sealed bottle, quite a long time if kept in a proper wine cellar, bottles of wine older than 10 years are more valuable than newer vintages.

Of course cheap bottles of wine will not improve with age, if you have an unopened bottle of wine older than 10 years and it was kept in a cool dry place with not a lot of light its fine to drink.

Please remember when the word "cheap" is used that doesn't mean inexpensive. Price does not always directly relate to quality.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alakazam518

Please remember when the word "cheap" is used that doesn't mean inexpensive. Price does not always directly relate to quality.

Hmm bit of an over generalisation here, really depends on the country of production.

I disagree completely. It depends on the type of wine, and the country. Different climates produce different wines.

Generally cheap does not mean bad. South American wines are a good example of this. Expensive definitely does not mean good.

Edit: Granted I am not referring to jug wine, or franzia here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alakazam

It depends on the type of wine, and the country. Different climates produce different wines.

True, of course.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alakazam

Generally cheap does not mean bad. South American wines are a good example of this. Expensive definatly does not mean good.

I'm sorry but with a subject as complex as wine, sweeping over generalisation aren't helpful.
There are so many variables that this whole statement canot hold true.

I could continue with a Diploma essay, but I'd wear my keyboard out.

Quote:

Price does not always directly relate to quality.

This statement is not a generalization. It is factual statement. Saying all low cost wines are horrible would be an incorrect generalization. I feel that half the fun of wine is finding a great quality wine with a low price tag. I guess I fail to understand what you are trying to say.

The problem with your statement is all I have to do is find two or three good wines with low pricetags and my statement is true. What you are suggesting is that either there are no good wines with a low price tag, or.. I don't know what it doesn't make sense beyond that.

It is very easy to find one or two examples to backup your assumption, but it is just as easy the other way around.

There is a higher percentage of badly made wine at a lower price then there is at a higher price.

I didn't say is wasn't possible to find well made wine at a lower price, but that your statement was a sweeping generalisation of an extremely complex subject.
I speak from YEARS of professional training and experience and after having tried tens of thousands of different wines from all over the globe.

Your statement:

Quote:

Price does not always directly relate to quality.

is still flawed, as there as some many more factors to consider than price alone.

At the end of the day who really cares if a bottle costs $5 or $500 what is important is if YOU like it.

Simple really.

My statement never suggests that price is the only factor to consider. It only suggest that someone should not assume that if the wine is cheap, then it is bad. It is pointing out that you should not overgeneralize. I believe the quote is "assuming makes an a.. out of you and me" u me. The original quote I was referring to:

Quote:

Of course cheap bottles of wine will not improve with age, if you have an unopened bottle of wine older than 10 years and it was kept in a cool dry place with not a lot of light its fine to drink.

This is a generalization, not my statement. My statement is to remind one to not assume or overgeneralize. Do you follow me? I believe we are argueing the same thing. I think the issue here is you are assuming I know nothing about wines and you are reading more into my statement then I put into it. I wrote literally what I meant. There is no implied meaning beyond "cheap does not always equal bad". (Note: I realize the author probably means "cheap" as in low quality and not in price. But not all readers will.)

If you can agree that "cheap does not always mean bad wine" then you agree with me. In fact if you want to read more into what I wrote then it would more then likely suggest that price is a very poor reference to use when trying to decide what wine you want because wine is so complicated. I have had wines (bought by other people) that were rather expensive, and in my opinion tasted horrible. There are also people who believe that Franzia and Almaden taste just fine. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder is it not?

Perhaps my usage of the word inexpensive in the previous sentence is throwing you off. I will admit that is very poor word choice. I should replace that with "poor quality"

At the end of the day I care what the price is. Because I will never buy a 500 dollar bottle of wine. My budget doesn't allow for a bottle of wine over 16 bucks. So I am worried about price tag before I even get to the store. If I am going to spend money like that I am going to spend it on a good bourbon.

All of this wine talk makes me just want to say
Chill...

Although I was skeptical about how it would taste, I just opened a 7+ year old bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau, and believe it or not, it tastes really good. I know this vintage is supposed to be consumed within six months of its release, but it was put away and forgotten. The wine was stored on a rack in an interior closet (no windows). I am curious to taste the other bottles I found with it, which are also from 2003. If you discover some older wine in your home, don't just pour it out without tasting it. You might be pleasantly surprised, as I was.