Question about wine

[AUMM]

so i have a bottle of wine i opened about a month ago, im guessing its gone bad correct? and if its gone bad does that mean i cant drink it? or that it just wont taste as good

 

[minendo]

id drink it

 

[AUMM]

haha thats wat i was planning, but i just wanted to make sure it wudnt make me sick or nething

 

[Joemonkey]

ok i know a bit about wine (damn me working in a liquor store...)

anyway

1. is it red or white
2. have you kept it refridgerated
3. have you kept it properly (put the cork back in after every glass, refilled it w/ CO2 cartridges and a plug, etc etc...)
4. is it a vintage wine that should last 5+ years anyway

 

[Jzero]

<< haha thats wat i was planning, but i just wanted to make sure it wudnt make me sick or nething >>

Might be ok. If it tastes ok, drink it.
If it doesn't or if it has weird stuff floating in it, I'd probably pass. I've gotten some skunked champagne once...it was foul.

OTOH, I bought this spiced apple wine last year and I opened it and took just a little out. My gf decided she didn't really want to drink it then, so I corked it and left it for a couple months.

When I uncorked it....POP! The stuff apparently started to ferment again, and it became a VERY tasty kind of spiced apple champagne....I daresay it was better than how it is sold....

 

[Yo Ma Ma]

If it doesn't taste like vinegar then I think it's OK.

 

[AUMM]

mmmm well its red wine, i dint keep it in the fridge, and its nothing fancy, pretty cheap wine. i think ill taste it

 

[Joemonkey]

if it's red, and you kinda jammed the cork back in there, it should be fine...

just remember to drink it at around room temperature, as chilled seems to take away from the flavor a bit (for reds only of course)

 

[Kadarin]

<< mmmm well its red wine, i dint keep it in the fridge, and its nothing fancy, pretty cheap wine. i think ill taste it >>



Good luck, and may the Force be with you.

-j

 

[Moonbeam]

It would probably be great for a salad.

 

[JeremyJoe]

if its red it should not be fridgerated but whites should be, if its cheap then just try it out and if it taste funny then just throw it out no big deal

 

[Saltin]

Are any of you actually old enough to drink? I'd assume you would know that after a month of being open, red wine will be about as chewy as a Snicker's bar. I would not, under any circumstances, drink it.
Lot's of wines will keep a long time if they are corked, but once it's open, you have about 3 days maximum before it starts to seriously degrade. You can use one of those pump thingies to lengthen its opened life, but still......
Just by another bottle , sheesh.

 

[Michael]

Both Red and White wines degrade after too much oxygen gets into them. Over time, the wine might turn into vinegar or the alcohol may evaporate and the remaining juice will become more susceptible to organisms growing in it.

There are quite a few red wines that taste good chilled and most taste great at cellar temperature (this is usually far below room temperature).

In general, most wine tastes horrible 3-5 days after they have been opened. You can get an extra week if you use one of the many different extension products that are out there (vacuum out the air or put a layer of neutral gas over the wine). If it is just cheap wine, buy another bottle.

Michael

 

[AndrewR]

I was beginning to wonder if anyone around here had ever tasted wine before. Thank you, Saltin, for restoring my faith in AT.

if it's red, and you kinda jammed the cork back in there, it should be fine...

just remember to drink it at around room temperature, as chilled seems to take away from the flavor a bit (for reds only of course)

Should be fine?? Assuming you want to make some sort of vinagrette, it should be fine, but as a drinking wine, it's finished. Using a vacuum sealer or some such device can extend a bottle for over a week, but a month is strictly out of the question because as soon as you open the bottle, you expose the wine to oxygen, which rapidly converts the wine into vinegar. I suppose you could drink it, but it would be nasty. Try buying a bottle of red wine vinegar next time. It's cheaper.

As for the temperature misconception, red wine SHOULD be chilled, but it should not be chilled to a low temperature like white wine. Good reds need to be chilled generally to around 50 degrees or so (depends on the type of grape). As a rule of thumb, they should only be room temperature in the winter -- in the summer, you want them cooled. Chilling takes away the flavor if overdone, but a lack of any cooling exacerbates the bad tastes of a wine -- try drinking crap wine warm, it's quite foul. Also, as a red wine warms, it releases its bouquet so hold a glass of red wine cupped in your palm (put the stem of the glass between your middle and ring fingers).

And, please, don't buy cheap wine -- spend a little more and support the GOOD wine growers out there. It only takes a minimum of $10 to find a decent bottle and $15 to get an even better one.

 

[Jzero]

<< I was beginning to wonder if anyone around here had ever tasted wine before. Thank you, Saltin, for restoring my faith in AT. >>



Think you guys are a _little_ too picky. I've kept wines chilling in the fridge for at least a month well-corked. They stay good enough--think about it: if it's well-corked, whatever little oxygen is trapped in the neck will be consumed fairly quickly. It doesn't taste as fresh as when it was first open, but it hasn't gone bad. I'm not gonna toss half a bottle of wine just b/c it's been open more than a few days.

 

[Joemonkey]

woah you guys were right, i missed the word month and for some reason i thought he said week... sorry, i've been drinking... bourbon that is... anyway...

don't try to degrade people for buying cheap (price wise) wine... everyone's tastes are different, and the BEST WINE EVER is the wine that TASTES BEST TO YOU


most rookie wine drinkers go for the sweeter cheap stuff like wild vines or arbor mist or any white zinfandel.

then they tend to upgrade to a riesling or sweeter chardonnay

then it takes them a while to upgrade to the reds... and...

blah blah blah...

anyway, before they get to the GOOD reds (pinot noir being a fave of mine) it takes a lot of wine drinking... if the person likes a red chilled more than it is "supposed to be" so be it... if they drink a red out of a glass meant for champange... boo fekkin' hoo, they didn't get the full boquet...

anyway, get a good shiraz (also known as syrah) such as jacob's creek reserve, rosemount, or bogle... some st. andre cheese (brie if yer cheap) and stoned wheat crackers, and you'll be in heaven

 

[Michael]

AndrewR - I (more my wife than me) have a 500 bottle cellar in my garage and my wife has been a home wine maker for quite a long time (she is racking and bottling some this weekend). I like Burgundies (and some American Pinot Noirs), my wife likes Cabs much more than I do. We live in California near wine country, so we get to try out many, mqny different wines. We were in France this year on vacation and my wife went a week early to spend time wine tasting in the Rhone Valley.

Michael

 

[Jzero]

<< anyway, get a good shiraz (also known as syrah) such as jacob's creek reserve, rosemount, or bogle... some st. andre cheese (brie if yer cheap) and stoned wheat crackers, and you'll be in heaven >>



Can't beat a tasty shiraz. Back when I was in college and I didn't know what to do for dinner, I'd go to Wegman's and I'd get a whole lot of olives, a whole lot of cheese, a few shooters, some crusty bread and a bottle of either chianti, pinot noir or shiraz and just go to town....

 

[AUMM]

hmmmm, well after tastin it.... not too yummy, down the drain it goes. it wasnt exactly horrible , but i dint want tochance it , tasted a lil funny thanks for the replies though, im guessing i dint store it very properly.