You make wine by fermenting grapes using yeast. And while you can store wine for a long time to make it taste better, once you open it, it’s bound to go bad soon. You might want to invest in a decent wine preservation system to keep it fresh longer. But how does this work? Keep on reading to find out.
How Wine Turns Bad
Different kinds of wine meet their ends at different times. Average quality wines are just, well, ordinary. It may not taste bad to most, but for sommeliers out there, they’ll surely rank those below the finer tasting wines they’ve tried. Sometimes, they won’t even turn bad fast since they’re already awful in the first place.
High-quality wines, however, are something to be excited about because the best wines, especially the ones properly stored, can last for years. A lot of those wines even taste better after they’ve aged. But those kinds of wines can only taste good after so many years, if you’ve never opened them. Because once you do, after a few days or weeks, they won’t taste as good as they did when freshly opened.
Wine starts to turn bad when it gets exposed to air. Oxygen is like the backstabbing friend of wine. It can help the wine release its aroma and flavors, which is how it entices the drinker. However, once there’s too much, it will oxidize the wine, ruining its flavor.
It’s not a total waste, though. Spoiled wine turns into vinegar. So, if your wine goes bad, maybe you can use it for your recipes, such as chicken skewers, to add flavor to the food. But if you prefer to drink your wine fresh, then you might as well get a wine preservation system to make the opened bottle last as long as it could.
Two Types of Wine Preservation Systems
- Vacuum System
The most common type of wine preservation system is the vacuum type. It is generally the more affordable one because it’s a mechanism that you work by hand. It’s basically a device that has a pump and a stopper to remove the air from inside the bottle.
To use it, you manually pump the device until the air is out and then cover the wine bottle with the stopper. It’s your choice if you want to put the bottle back in your cellar or store it in the fridge, although the latter is the most optimal choice because it’ll prevent the wine from heating up and the bottle can last for up to ten more days.
- Cartridge System
Preserving wine using the cartridge system is where you use gas that is heavier than oxygen to protect the liquid from getting into contact with the harmful air. It usually works by sticking a thin needle into the cork and then pouring the wine into an empty glass.
The system then pumps the gas, usually Argon, into the bottle. Since it’s heavier than oxygen, Argon will act as a barrier that separates the wine from the air, preserving the wine for as long as a month.
There’s just one downside when pumping gas inside wine bottles: Even though it preserves the wine, you run the risk of the glass from bursting if you put in too much gas. The risk is low, but it’s still there. You can also protect yourself from injury by covering the bottle or putting it in a bag, so in case it explodes, the glass shards won’t hurt you.
Why You Should Preserve Your Wine
If you’re a real alcoholic, then you probably won’t have a problem with finishing a bottle immediately and all by yourself. But some people would rather drink only one glass a day. But if wine can spoil after a few days, a lot of it may go to waste if they don’t drink an extra glass or two per day or share it with friends or family.
High-quality wine can also be expensive, so it would be a waste of money to let a good bottle go bad. It’s the reason why most restaurants sell wine by the bottle if they don’t have wine preservation systems.
Final Thoughts
If you don’t want your wine or money to go to waste every time you open a bottle, consider investing in getting a decent wine preservation system. There are two types to choose from and many different brands so you can find one that fits your budget. Unless you want all of your wine to become vinegar, start researching for the best one for you.
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