5 tips to preserve leftover wine

What do you do? You open a bottle wine to serve with dinner and don’t finish it with the meal. What should you do to save the leftover wine so you can either drink it at another time or use it for sauces and marinades?

While the wine won’t taste the same as it during the initial tasting, there are some techniques you can use to save leftover wine. Here are five of our favorite tips to save leftover wine:

Refrigerate the Wine. It is essential refrigerate leftover wine. This rule applies to red and white wine, as chilling keeps the leftover contents as fresh as possible. Store for approximately 3-4 days.

Remove the Air. Purchase a gadget (wine pump, wine saver, wine vaccum) to help you remove the extra air from the bottle thereby creating a vacuum effect to preserve the wine. Prices range around $6 and up. Simply pump out the air from the bottle, refrigerate and consume within 3-4 days.

Recork. Moisten the cork by dipping into some wine, push it back into the bottle (as far as possible) and refrigerate. This method works for red and white wine.  The wine will lose some of its luster, but will be drinkable for a few days.  Take the red wine out 30 minutes prior to drinking. Stores for approximately 3-4 days.

Repurpose an Empty Wine Split. A clever option to store leftover wine is to put the wine into a smaller wine bottle. You can find empty wine splits at specialty stores or recycle a wine split. Simply transfer the leftover wine into the smaller bottle, cork the bottle and refrigerate. Stores for approximately 3-4 days.

Freeze. Transfer the wine to a plastic container or heavy-duty zip-lock bag and freeze it to use in cooking at a later date.

Do you have a favorite technique or tip to save (or use) leftover wine? Share it with us in the comment section below.

Mama Says, waste not want not! Even with leftover wine.  Don’t forget February 27th is Open That Bottle Night (OTBN) 2010.

Enjoyed this post? See these:

1. Thrifty Thursday – Top Chef, Wine Suggestion & Hints
2. Wine Wednesday: OTBN Open That Bottle Night
3. Thrifty Thursday – Budget Wine Selection

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Tags: kitchen economics, OTBN, saving leftover wine, wine

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 18th, 2010 at 6:32 am and is filed under Thrifty Thursday, Wine Wednesday. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.