After a lot of trial and error, trying a lot of the standard recommendations for storing wine, you may be surprised at the practical solution I've found. It includes something that most people simply throw away every day.
Family and friends used to laugh hysterically as I vigorously pumped the air out of my half-used bottle of wine with one of those wine pumpers. I guess I do start to break a sweat. But hey - I love wine, and I can't stand to waste even a drop. Imagine spending $60 on a nice bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon, then pouring half of it down the drain? I don't think so!
So, what about those wine pumps? Or those wine preservative sprays? They both claim to extend the life of your precious wine for days or even weeks. But do they really work? Well, we've tried them both.
The pumps are, well, basically worthless. There's no arguing that they create a vacuum. But does that really extend the life of your wine? Maybe for a few extra hours. But that's not enough. The wine (especially white wines) will begin to spoil in a couple of days, even when refrigerated. Red wines will last a bit longer because the tannins in the wines act as a natural preservative.
What about those wine preserving sprays? The manufacturers claim that the life of an opened bottle of wine can be extended to nearly a year! Hmmm. While its true that wine preservative sprays can extend the life of a wine, we've found that the wine deteriorates after a couple of weeks. With the wine preservatives, you spray a small amount of inert gas into the bottle. The gas displaces the oxygen in the bottle. It isn't perfect. How do you know if your squirt of gas is enough to expel all of the oxygen? And when you put the cork or stopper back on the bottle, how can you guarantee that the cork itself won't introduce some residual oxygen and bacteria? It's primarily oxygen that interacts with the wine and microscopic elements in the wine to cause it to spoil. The wine preservative sprays do work much better than the pumps. But do you really need to spend your hard-earned money on those expensive sprays? No. We'll show you a better way. It may not be sexy. But we've found that it works much better than pumps and is far less expensive than sprays.
Instructions
1. Drink the water (we recommend that you pour the water into a glass, rather than placing your lips on the water bottle) - or give your precious houseplants a drink. Make sure the water bottle is clean. Then shake out the remaining water droplets. It doesn't have to be perfectly dry. But get it as dry as possible - otherwise you'll be diluting your wine with a little water - and if you're picky about wine like I am, that's not cool.
2. After you've enjoyed a portion of that wonderful Cab, Syrah or Pinot, pour the remaining wine into the empty water bottle.
3. If the wine overfills the water bottle, then start filling another water bottle with what's left.
4. Squeeze the water bottle so that the wine reaches the very top of the bottle, then screw on the cap tightly. By doing so, you're expelling all air from the bottle. Store the wine in your refrigerator. It should keep just fine for at least a week!
Tags: water bottle, those wine, bottle wine, extend life, preservative sprays, that wine
