4 Wine Preservation Tips and Tricks

For those of you who’ve never seen a partially depleted bottle of wine, consider yourself lottery winner lucky! An opened, unfinished bottle of vino doesn’t have to be cooking ingredient or a garbage disposal lubricant, it can be saved! Effective perpetuation of wine will allow a crisp white with tonight’s salad, a hearty red with the steak, and a sexy Sauterne with the Crème Brule. If you’re one who loves to sample (present company included), there are a few ways to deal with the half-finished bottles and we can help with our piece on – 4 Wine Preservation Tips and Tricks.

Freezing It

The first trick I attempted was gleaned from the Kendall-Jackson website in an article penned by Christy Canterbury. She suggested freezing the wine in the bottle. I have, on occasion, recorked wine and put in the refrigerator and for the following evening. Chardonnays and domestic Merlots faired better than more complex grapes, but none tasted fresh and brand new.

Given that Ms. Canterbury is a Master of Wine and smarter than I’ll ever be, I gave the deep freeze a shot. A ¾ full bottle of 2017 Booth & Durant Cabernet ($25.00) was the guinea pig. I used this wine in all the experiments in this article to ensure easily measured results. I kept the re-corked bottle frozen for 4 days, about a week and a half shy of the max suggested. To thaw per the blog, I ran tepid water over the base of the bottle. Not warm, just tepid. I believe anything above 100° f might damage the wine.

Tasting the thawed product, I was surprised to find the quality superior to day-old refrigerated wine, but not by a wide margin. I guess if you have the freezer space and the time and don’t mind wasting the water, this is a viable way to save wine. The real methods, I fear, are going to require some gadgetry.

The Vacuum Seal

The vacuum method of wine preservation can go by many trademarked names and can be manual or electrical in operation. The best known, the most affordable and the easiest to use is the Vacu Vin Wine Saver Pump. It is readily available for $12 and less at Amazon.com, Total Wine & More (any outlet or totalwine.com) and a host of other retailers. Extra vacuum stoppers are available for about $6 for two.

The positive is that this works….for about three days and only pretty well. I found it to be better than cooling or freezing but that even after a day, the wine lost some of its luster. Removing the air in the bottle also depleted a bit of the aroma. I could still taste dark fruit and cocoa on the finish but had a hard time picking up the red fruit this wine shows on the nose. It was kind of like drinking with a head cold or a deviated septum.

A Bit of Chemistry

Since the culprit of wine-killing is oxygenated atmospheric air (plain old air to the layman) then why not replace it with something heavier to prevent oxidation? Argon and Nitrogen will do that nicely and without the ability to (quickly) dissolve into the liquid. For about $10 a bottle, you can purchase Private Preserve a blend of Argon, Nitrogen, and CO2. A one second blast and two short shots replace the damaging air with a blanket of mostly inert gas keeping the wine safe from harm.

Does it work? Short answer is yes. I gave the wine a bit more than recommended; two, one second blasts and a short shot all the while drawing the plastic straw attached to the spout from the meniscus of the liquid to the lip of the bottle. I used a tight-fitting stopper and kept the bottle upright.

I did this every day for a week each time tasting a 2oz pour for quality and consistency. I’m not sure if the fading results were due to an increase of age or a decrease in volume but the end product did not resemble the initial in any way, shape or form. It began to lose flavor after day three and at day seven I was happy to spit….and rinse. I’ll try this again as soon as my taste buds recoup.

And the Piece de Resistance  

Lastly, we mix the engineering with the chemistry. The Coravin Wine Preservation System uses a hollow needle to pierce the cork and pump inert (argon) gas into the bottle and allow a release trigger to open a jet expelling the wine. The cork is never removed and reseals itself after the needle is extracted. Knowing the reputation of the Coravin, I poured a 1oz sample for 25 days straight.

Keeping copious notes and making sure it was the first item tasted, I could find no discernable difference between the first sip and the last. The nose was always clean and bright. The finish was true and full of oak, cocoa, and a touch of tobacco. So, a slam-dunk eh? The only drawback is what it will set you back.

The models start at $199 and progress from there. Argon capsules are $53 for a 6pack with each pressurizing approximately three bottles of wine. The needles are $70 for a set of three different functioning siphons. (I’ve had my model 2 Elite Pro for 15 months and use it regularly. I’ve yet to replace a needle.) The cost can only be justified by the amount of good to great wine wasted or diminished in quality. (See our full review here.)

Final Thoughts

Good wine can be a single nights experience or a serious investment and with any purchase, you don’t want to waste your money. The bottom line is that yesterdays wine has a third option. No longer is the stew pot or the kitchen sink the only choice. You can enjoy yesterdays wine today, or tomorrow, the only choices are how long do you need to save it and how much are you willing to spend.

We hope that you’ve found the information on our blog – 4 Wine Preservation Tips and Tricks useful and you share this with your friends! As we always say, if you don’t see something here you want us to cover, feel free to reach out to us directly through our Contact page or leave a comment below. Cheers!

Bob Hollowell has been exploring the world of wine for almost 40 years and has no plans on slowing down anytime soon! He’s no stranger to the culinary circles and is passionate about teaching other’s the experiences one can receive through food and drink.

Bob is a Certified Sommelier from Court of Master Sommeliers and a Cicerone Certified Beer Server, but most importantly has been in the restaurant and commercial sales (wine, spirits and beer) industry for over 25 years, bringing a wealth of professional knowledge to The 55 Lifestyle and to our readers.