Our Tips for Preserving an Opened Bottle of Wine

This article is primarily intended for restaurateurs who offer wine by the glass. This practice often leads to opening bottles without finishing them, which can result in losses. Don't worry, by following our advice, you can expect to preserve your wine for up to 5 days after opening. Even better, our selection of professional tools ensures the quality of your wines can be maintained for several weeks.

Here are our tips for preserving open wines. These can also be applied at home when a bottle is not finished.

3 tips for proper wine preservation

If you offer wines in your bar or restaurant, it's natural to want to maximize your product's profitability down to the last drop. It would be a shame to waste a good wine by letting it aerate...

Here are some techniques for effectively preserving your wine after opening, thereby ensuring its quality in the following days. These techniques vary depending on the type of wine. You will need to adapt based on the properties of the open wine. For instance, some white wines are very sweet, such as Sauternes: these wines can be preserved longer than others, given that sugar helps to preserve an open white wine.

The quality and preservation of an open wine primarily depend on temperature, light, and the amount of oxygen present in the bottle. These are the elements that can alter your wine.

Place your bottle in the refrigerator

Ensure your bottles are kept away from high temperatures, which accelerate the oxidation process. Therefore, avoid any proximity to heat sources: ideally, the temperature should not exceed 15°C.

For white wine, we recommend a cellar or refrigerator. Professionals advise storing open red wine in the fridge for up to 5 days, depending on the wine, and taking it out a few hours before serving to allow it to reach the proper temperature.

Keep bottles away from light sources

Red wine is highly sensitive to light. Avoid storing your open bottle in a room that is too brightly lit by daylight or in direct sunlight. Ideally, it should be stored in a cupboard or a box.

Recork the bottle immediately after service

Ultimately, it is crucial to limit wine oxidation: air coming into contact with the wine initiates a chemical reaction, causing your wine to gradually lose its balance and become stale.

Therefore, it is essential to re-seal the bottle immediately after service. Traditionally, it is advised to reinsert the original cork upside down. Alternatively, you can transfer the wine into a smaller bottle: the fuller the bottle, the slower the wine will deteriorate.

Professional Systems for Enhanced Preservation

To preserve an opened bottle for several weeks, we recommend investing in a professional system, specifically designed for the preservation of opened wine bottles or for wine-by-the-glass dispensers. This will ensure your wine's quality is maintained for several weeks. We have curated a selection of the best preservation tools for you.

Presorvac

Presorvac is distinguished by its efficiency. It is a straightforward system that removes oxygen from the bottle via rotary pressure. This process prevents oxidation, thus ensuring superior wine preservation.

This system is effective for white, red, and sparkling wines. Its relatively high cost (approximately 350 euros) is quickly justified by its efficiency.

Vacuvin

This system comprises a small pump and a rubber stopper designed to extract air from the bottle, thereby preserving the wine for two to three days.

Vacuvin can be perceived as somewhat cumbersome, as pumping bottles can take up to 30 seconds. This is a meticulous operation, as the rubber valve must not be compromised by excessive pumping.

This tool is relatively simple and affordable (approximately fifteen euros), offering a quick return on investment. It is designed for short-term preservation, suitable for more modest bottles that do not necessitate storage for several months.

The Advineo Tower

This tool enables you to re-seal opened bottles for enhanced preservation. It employs natural vacuum preservation, which prevents oxidation of the remaining wine in the bottle. This system is suitable for red, white, and sparkling wines!

For sparkling wines, CO2 is injected into the bottle before re-sealing.

Nitrogen Preservation Systems

These systems enable the preservation of opened bottles for two to three weeks. The method involves replacing the dispensed wine with food-grade nitrogen during each pour, which prevents the remaining wine from oxidizing. Nitrogen systems also offer the benefit of regulating the wine's temperature.

Nitrogen systems are typically employed in restaurants that offer high-quality, expensive, and thus less frequently requested wines. Such preservation tools are relatively costly, as their ongoing maintenance must also be considered. Therefore, while effective, these systems are primarily suited for premium products.

Coravin

This tool recently emerged in the United States, offering an innovative solution to the challenge of preserving opened wines. To circumvent the need to re-seal the bottle after opening, Coravin proposes... not opening it in the traditional sense. A hollow needle pierces the cork to extract the wine, similar to a syringe, while simultaneously injecting an inert gas during the process.

This process enables wine extraction over several months without any alteration to its quality. This innovative system is quite expensive, costing approximately 300 euros for the device itself, not including the price of the gas cartridges. While this technique is highly beneficial for Grand Crus and premium labels, it is less cost-effective for less prestigious wines.

Bag-in-Box and Dispensers: Eliminating the Bottle

Other methods bypass the challenge of preserving opened wine bottles by eliminating the bottle entirely. This entails utilizing a wine dispenser or an alternative system for product preservation and presentation.

Bag-in-Box

This system revolutionizes wine service, as the traditional bottle is replaced by a bag-in-box. Essentially, a bulk container is used to hold the wine. This system is particularly widespread among restaurateurs for serving wine by the carafe. However, the tradition of wine-by-the-glass service largely remains tied to bottle presentation.

Advineo

This is a wine-by-the-glass dispenser. The concept is innovative, enabling wine-by-the-glass service while ensuring optimal preservation of bottled wine. This system allows wine to be kept for up to 3 weeks under inert gas (nitrogen and argon) and maintained at the correct serving temperature.

One of the positive aspects of this system is its presentation and aesthetic appeal. With its sleek design, the wine dispenser can be placed on the counter to showcase wines to customers.

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