Saving Wine

Many wine producers, especially those from the New World, now release wines in bottles with screw top caps.  Two such favorite wines from Shinas Estate in Victoria, Australia, are The Prisoner and The Guilty, the latter shown here.

I recently opened a bottle but did not finish serving the entire bottle.  As I went to close the bottle up, I thought, "Ha, I bet most people just put the screw cap back on and call it a day."  I've certainly seen it done in restaurants that serve by the glass.  

The preferred way to store the  unfinished bottle is to use a vacuum pump to remove the excess air from the bottle and then store the wine in a cool place.  (Yes, air contact is important to opening wine, allowing the wine "to breathe", but there is a point where the contact harms and changes the wine.)  The wine should keep for two or three more days; generally I would not serve an opened bottle of wine after a third day even if it has been preserved by the vacuum method.

Of course this method of preservation should be used on wines from the Old World and those with corks as well.

use a vacuum stopper to preserve open bottles of wine

A word about vacuum systems for wine:  buy extra stoppers as the manufacturers tend to change the design of  their products every couple of years and when you go to buy new replacement stoppers, they're no longer available and you have to buy the whole system over again. 

Also, when you remove the stopper before pouring, their should be a suction release sound from the stopper; it there isn't, the wine was not properly sealed.

And just as re-screwing the cap top isn't going to preserve your open wine, nor is just sticking the cork back into the bottle--either at home or in a restaurant.  Care for your wine properly to enjoy it to its fullest potential.