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Can wine go bad?

T

TheGizmo

Diamond Member
If it is opened but recorked when finished serving, sitting at room temp in kitchen. This stuff has been sitting open (but recorked) for like a week and it tastes kind of funky. But maybe its just me after all it is 8am and I have been awake for like 40 hrs. Safe to drink??

BTW, its Robert Mondavi Merlot 2002 is this any good to begin with? I dont know crap when it comes to wines.
 
Originally posted by: TheGizmo
i guess vinegar cant kill me... cheers :wine:

wonder if it will make the hangover worse
Click to expand...

It won't kill you, but why would you drink it if it tastes funky?
 
depends. ur particular wine, i believe can go bad. i aint no expert in wines but i do know that there are wines that the longer they spend time in storage, the better they taste. in fact, i know that this japanese man invented a achine that "ages" the wine. therefor some wines must be able to not go bad. since u drank it already, not much we can do, but for future reference, don't drink it. the millions of viruses/bacteria in the air might make u sick...
 
Vinegar isn't actually the problem. Most people think it is, but it's not so.

Vinegar comes from acetobacter contamination, and it's this bacteria that produces the familiar acetic acid that gives us vinegar. Although wine exposed for a long period will likely be contaminated the main culprit is usually just oxygen itself. Ethanol can be oxidized to produce acetaldehyde, and it's this compound that gives us the familiar flavor profile of an oxidized wine.

As a winemaker I can shed some light as to how we prevent this oxidation from occurring during fermentation and bottling:

1) During primary fermentation there is a blanket of CO2 that covers the must (that's the fermenting juice, fruit, etc.) so little to no oxygen interacts with juice. It's this blanket that prevents oxidation of the ethyl alcohol molecules that are resultant of the fermentation.

2) When fermentation slows we generally introduce sulfites, and if you read the back of a bottle of wine you'll almost always see the "Contains Sulfites" label. Generally organic wines have little (50ppm or less) to no sulfites, but 50ppm is normal for a commercial wine. The sulfites produce SO2 which more readily bind to the oxygen thus preventing it from stripping the oxygen molecule from the ethanol. This in effect prevents oxidation. The SO2 also carries with it the ability to sanitize, but that's not the point of this conversation.

3) When bottled we introduce a layer of inert gas over the headspace of the bottle. This inert gas introduces a layer between the oxygen inserted during bottling and the wine while it rests. The gas used it typically nitrogen, argon, or a combination. We also try to purge the headspace before bottling so that very little oxygen remains in the bottle, but given the way corks work (artificial or natural) there is a drying period over a few years where some oxygen does make its way into the bottle.

That's it. I can't drink an oxidized wine, and I can start to notice it even after a few hours. I open my bottles under a nitrogen system that keeps it as fresh as possible, but keeping anything over a day isn't suitable, imo.
 
Originally posted by: homercles337
Originally posted by: TheGizmo
Originally posted by: Finns14
Yeah it can go bad it gets vinegary (just made that word up)
Click to expand...

hmm still safe to drink for aquiring a buzz?
Click to expand...

Yes. Its only been a week. Just oxidized a bit.
Click to expand...

A week?? There's no way that's drinkable. As I said in my first post, I pour my wines under a forced nitrogen introduction system, and even they don't remain drinkable past a few days. ... at most.

Guess it all depends on what you're looking for. If you want a buzz, sure; if you're wanting to retain the complexities of the wine you'll be disappointed after a few hours of an exposed wine, at best.
 
Originally posted by: Descartes
Originally posted by: homercles337
Originally posted by: TheGizmo
Originally posted by: Finns14
Yeah it can go bad it gets vinegary (just made that word up)
Click to expand...

hmm still safe to drink for aquiring a buzz?
Click to expand...

Yes. Its only been a week. Just oxidized a bit.
Click to expand...

A week?? There's no way that's drinkable. As I said in my first post, I pour my wines under a forced nitrogen introduction system, and even they don't remain drinkable past a few days. ... at most.

Guess it all depends on what you're looking for. If you want a buzz, sure; if you're wanting to retain the complexities of the wine you'll be disappointed after a few hours of an exposed wine, at best.
Click to expand...

Yep. He was just looking for a buzz. And you are right about the couple hour thing. I use those vacuum sealers to suck out the oxygen. This seems to help them last longer, but if im wrong im sure you will tell me. 😉
 
It won't taste as good but it's still drinkable. So long as it doesn't taste like vinegar. I would toss it if it tastes like that.
 
Originally posted by: homercles337
Originally posted by: Descartes
Originally posted by: homercles337
Originally posted by: TheGizmo
Originally posted by: Finns14
Yeah it can go bad it gets vinegary (just made that word up)
Click to expand...

hmm still safe to drink for aquiring a buzz?
Click to expand...

Yes. Its only been a week. Just oxidized a bit.
Click to expand...

A week?? There's no way that's drinkable. As I said in my first post, I pour my wines under a forced nitrogen introduction system, and even they don't remain drinkable past a few days. ... at most.

Guess it all depends on what you're looking for. If you want a buzz, sure; if you're wanting to retain the complexities of the wine you'll be disappointed after a few hours of an exposed wine, at best.
Click to expand...

Yep. He was just looking for a buzz. And you are right about the couple hour thing. I use those vacuum sealers to suck out the oxygen. This seems to help them last longer, but if im wrong im sure you will tell me. 😉
Click to expand...

I performed a blind tasting of various presentation methods a few years ago, and while any tasting is subjective I had a few worthwhile conclusions.

I used three methods of preservation:

1) My nitrogen-based system.
2) Simply reducing the headspace of the remaining wine. I would take a full 750 bottle and pour it in two 375 bottles, and from the two 375 bottles I would pour it into two ~187 bottles. The only point here is to remove the space for oxygen to remain.
3) Vacu-vin.
4) No preservation at all. I just used a fresh cork.

The results were fairly conclusive in our tasting: The nitrogen-based system and the headspace-reduction system won. We left them "preserved" for 8 hours and then began the testing. The vacu-vin systems did have an appreciable affect over no preservation at all, but a lot of people have had mixed results. If you want to learn more about more quantitative tests (actually measuring the oxygen left in the bottle, for example) with vacu-vin I encourage you to read the various newsgroups on wine.

All in all, it's whatever pleases you. If you feel that your system works for you then it really doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. I know people that put marbles in their bottles to remove the headspace...
 
Originally posted by: Descartes
Originally posted by: homercles337
Originally posted by: Descartes
Originally posted by: homercles337
Originally posted by: TheGizmo
Originally posted by: Finns14
Yeah it can go bad it gets vinegary (just made that word up)
Click to expand...

hmm still safe to drink for aquiring a buzz?
Click to expand...

Yes. Its only been a week. Just oxidized a bit.
Click to expand...

A week?? There's no way that's drinkable. As I said in my first post, I pour my wines under a forced nitrogen introduction system, and even they don't remain drinkable past a few days. ... at most.

Guess it all depends on what you're looking for. If you want a buzz, sure; if you're wanting to retain the complexities of the wine you'll be disappointed after a few hours of an exposed wine, at best.
Click to expand...

Yep. He was just looking for a buzz. And you are right about the couple hour thing. I use those vacuum sealers to suck out the oxygen. This seems to help them last longer, but if im wrong im sure you will tell me. 😉
Click to expand...

I performed a blind tasting of various presentation methods a few years ago, and while any tasting is subjective I had a few worthwhile conclusions.

I used three methods of preservation:

1) My nitrogen-based system.
2) Simply reducing the headspace of the remaining wine. I would take a full 750 bottle and pour it in two 375 bottles, and from the two 375 bottles I would pour it into two ~187 bottles. The only point here is to remove the space for oxygen to remain.
3) Vacu-vin.
4) No preservation at all. I just used a fresh cork.

The results were fairly conclusive in our tasting: The nitrogen-based system and the headspace-reduction system won. We left them "preserved" for 8 hours and then began the testing. The vacu-vin systems did have an appreciable affect over no preservation at all, but a lot of people have had mixed results. If you want to learn more about more quantitative tests (actually measuring the oxygen left in the bottle, for example) with vacu-vin I encourage you to read the various newsgroups on wine.

All in all, it's whatever pleases you. If you feel that your system works for you then it really doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. I know people that put marbles in their bottles to remove the headspace...
Click to expand...

I use the vacu-vin system. Works well for me. I usually have a bottle of red lying around and since I'm the only one who drinks red wine it takes a couple days for me to polish off a bottle.
 
Originally posted by: Descartes
Vinegar isn't actually the problem. Most people think it is, but it's not so.

Vinegar comes from acetobacter contamination, and it's this bacteria that produces the familiar acetic acid that gives us vinegar. Although wine exposed for a long period will likely be contaminated the main culprit is usually just oxygen itself. Ethanol can be oxidized to produce acetaldehyde, and it's this compound that gives us the familiar flavor profile of an oxidized wine.

As a winemaker I can shed some light as to how we prevent this oxidation from occurring during fermentation and bottling:

1) During primary fermentation there is a blanket of CO2 that covers the must (that's the fermenting juice, fruit, etc.) so little to no oxygen interacts with juice. It's this blanket that prevents oxidation of the ethyl alcohol molecules that are resultant of the fermentation.

2) When fermentation slows we generally introduce sulfites, and if you read the back of a bottle of wine you'll almost always see the "Contains Sulfites" label. Generally organic wines have little (50ppm or less) to no sulfites, but 50ppm is normal for a commercial wine. The sulfites produce SO2 which more readily bind to the oxygen thus preventing it from stripping the oxygen molecule from the ethanol. This in effect prevents oxidation. The SO2 also carries with it the ability to sanitize, but that's not the point of this conversation.

3) When bottled we introduce a layer of inert gas over the headspace of the bottle. This inert gas introduces a layer between the oxygen inserted during bottling and the wine while it rests. The gas used it typically nitrogen, argon, or a combination. We also try to purge the headspace before bottling so that very little oxygen remains in the bottle, but given the way corks work (artificial or natural) there is a drying period over a few years where some oxygen does make its way into the bottle.

That's it. I can't drink an oxidized wine, and I can start to notice it even after a few hours. I open my bottles under a nitrogen system that keeps it as fresh as possible, but keeping anything over a day isn't suitable, imo.
Click to expand...

Vodka for the win???

How long before Alcohol has this problem?????
 
Originally posted by: TheGizmo
If it is opened but recorked when finished serving, sitting at room temp in kitchen. This stuff has been sitting open (but recorked) for like a week and it tastes kind of funky. But maybe its just me after all it is 8am and I have been awake for like 40 hrs. Safe to drink??

BTW, its Robert Mondavi Merlot 2002 is this any good to begin with? I dont know crap when it comes to wines.
Click to expand...

As the wine pro mentioned, your wine is way beyond dead by now. If you are just a casually wine drinker, though, you can pop that wine into the fridge and you would probably find it drinkable for a day or two. If I have a bottle that lasts longer than two days I find something to cook and use it to deglaze the pan or otherwise use as a marinade.

Also, and maybe this is a personal opinion, but I don't care for any of the Mondavi wines. I personally would stay away from them. If you want to find a good quality but cheap wine the best thing to do is just thumb thru a Wine Spectator at your local bookstore and look for their monthly best buys. Usually they will have close to a dozen wines that score quite high and all under $20. Of course much of it depends on your personal preference, but if you don't know what you like I think that is an excellent starting point.

I think there are many great American wines, but I just don't think Mondavi is one of them. There is a great little outfit in Orgeon that makes a great syrah, but the name escapes me.
 
Originally posted by: Babbles
Originally posted by: TheGizmo
If it is opened but recorked when finished serving, sitting at room temp in kitchen. This stuff has been sitting open (but recorked) for like a week and it tastes kind of funky. But maybe its just me after all it is 8am and I have been awake for like 40 hrs. Safe to drink??

BTW, its Robert Mondavi Merlot 2002 is this any good to begin with? I dont know crap when it comes to wines.
Click to expand...

As the wine pro mentioned, your wine is way beyond dead by now. If you are just a casually wine drinker, though, you can pop that wine into the fridge and you would probably find it drinkable for a day or two. If I have a bottle that lasts longer than two days I find something to cook and use it to deglaze the pan or otherwise use as a marinade.

Also, and maybe this is a personal opinion, but I don't care for any of the Mondavi wines. I personally would stay away from them. If you want to find a good quality but cheap wine the best thing to do is just thumb thru a Wine Spectator at your local bookstore and look for their monthly best buys. Usually they will have close to a dozen wines that score quite high and all under $20. Of course much of it depends on your personal preference, but if you don't know what you like I think that is an excellent starting point.

I think there are many great American wines, but I just don't think Mondavi is one of them. There is a great little outfit in Orgeon that makes a great syrah, but the name escapes me.
Click to expand...

All good suggestions, especially the one with relation to cooking.

I love Oregon's Willamette Valley region and I'm a pinot noir loyalist. A lot of the winemakers from this region are progressive, free of dogmatic notions of wine (e.g. screw tops), and employ a lot of techniques to produce world-class wines (e.g. carbonic maceration--though it's not the carbonic maceration that makes it world-class of course). Some of my absolute favorites from the region are: Argyle, Van Duzer, and Ponzi. Argyle is one of my favorite Pinot-producing wineries I've ever experienced, and I favor it over some of the better Burgundian Pinots.

Columbia Valley has a lot of great results as well. They are some solid wineries producing notable Cabernet Sauvignon, and a few have shown interest in the Gewurtztraminer (sorry for the lack of the German diacritics) that you typically find in the Alsace region. It's an almost floral varietal that is great for a dessert wine if the fruit is picked with sufficient sugars.

I'd love to see the northwestern US flourish in its viticulture. I find the wines there increasingly complex and the people behind them are as passionate as any other.

:wine;
 
life is too short to drink bad wine.

i would prefer to finish a wine in one sitting, if not, one day max I would leave it in the fridge.
 
Originally posted by: andylawcc
life is too short to drink bad wine.

i would prefer to finish a wine in one sitting, if not, one day max I would leave it in the fridge.
Click to expand...

Well we're talking about wine that has been open for two months now ...
 
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