Can red wine go off?
It’s the question on your lips now that the sunshine has returned and it’s time to sit out in the garden with a glass of the good stuff! To make sure you get the most out of your favourite tipple without having to endure poor mouthfeel, or a disastrous loss of flavour, we’ve put together a handy little guide that’s designed to settle this tricky little question once and for all. That means there’ll be no more googling whether or not red wine goes off, no more debates down the pub, and definitely no more late night guesswork when all you want to do is lie back and relax.
Now that we’ve set the scene and (hopefully) got you excited about everything that’s about to follow, let’s jump straight to it without delay!
How long does corked red wine last?
If you want to get the most out of your red wine before you’ve even opened it, you need to make sure you store it the right way. A cool, dark place out of direct sunlight is the only way to do it when it’s time to make sure the photo chemicals inside the wine don’t take on a life of their own. This may sound a little overly dramatic to the more relaxed amongst you; but take it from us, storing your red wine correctly really does add years to its shelf life.
Storing it in a haphazard way will give you a shelf life of two years at the most, and a lot of the time the flavour will be off even drinking it that quick. The unwanted fizz and sweetness that are activated by too much heat and sunlight really will ruin a mouthwatering vintage, so why would you want to even contemplate taking the risk?
If you’re smart (like us) you’ll store your wine the right way and enjoy a shelf life of 5 years or more. When you put it like that, it’s so simple to decide which way you’re going to go!
Does uncorked red wine go off quickly?
Storing your wine in the fridge so it’s cool, calm and out of that pesky sunlight is the way to do it here folks. Your fridge is a hard worker, but not a miracle worker, so expect to get anywhere from 3-5 days of smooth mouthfeel and flavour once you pop the cork.
The simplest way to make sure you enjoy every last drop is of course…you guessed it…to finish it in one sitting. While that’s often the recipe for the perfect evening, you don’t always want to polish off the entire bottle. You might even decide to be a little adventurous and host a wine tasting, in which case you’ll have half a dozen bottles in need of storage. The key here is to take it easy, take a deep breath and take your time so you get everything right. Having a dedicated storage section in your fridge and making a note of what was uncorked when will help you keep track of all the new additions to your cooler.
And if you remember that the steps for storing each red wine are the same, no matter how expensive the vintage, you’ll never put a foot wrong. Ideal when you want to make preserving your favourite red wines look as quick and easy as it should be.
How does red wine taste when it goes off?
The eagle-eyed among you will have probably already noticed that we threw in a quick description of gone-off red wine a little earlier on. Missed it? Spotted it but want a little more detail? Don’t want to admit you missed it and want to carry on like you haven’t been caught out? We have you covered!
When red wine goes off the first things to change are the flavour and the aroma. You might think there’s not much else that characterises good wine…and you’d be right. Why does that matter? Because when red wine goes off the whole experience takes a knock and you really won’t be able to ignore it.
There’s be a slightly sour, or sometimes sweet, aroma that goes with the wine whenever you draw it to your nose. This is something that you might think you can live with, but that’s until you take the first sip and sample the new flavour you’ve unwittingly created. There’s excessive fizz and an overpowering natural sweetness that come about due to the sugars in the wine breaking down. When they come into contact with sunlight and oxygen a series of complex chemical reactions happen inside the bottle. While you might find the details of these fascinating (feel free to do some extra reading folks) you won’t be quite as enamoured with the whole experience once you taste the end result. In summary: when red wine goes off, it doesn’t taste nice!
Anything else to say about red wine going off?
I think we’ve covered all the basics folks: store it a cool dark place when it’s corked, and move it into the fridge when it’s uncorked. Aside from that, you might want to think about ways to make each bottle you give as a gift truly irresistible if you want to make sure your friend’s wine never goes off.
One approach would be to accompany the giving of the gift with a long, boring, and long-winded lecture that covers everything we just shared with you in minute detail. Sounds like something your friend will enjoy listening to? Didn’t think so!
The other approach is to swap out the label on the bottle with a custom design that’s sure to make them smile the moment they lay eyes on it. Do things the custom way and you’ll be able to ensure your bottle is the gift they never want to let out of their sight. Before you know it they’ll have polished off the contents and be displaying the bottle with pride.
Job done!