Holiday Leftovers

Leftovers - every holiday has them and for a wine lover, they are either a bonus or a problem. Turkey can be made into sandwiches, casseroles and burritos, and I love them all, but I have horrifying memories of recycled vegetable leftovers in my childhood. As an adult, I dread wine leftovers, but they exist - you have some friends over, everyone brings a bottle and in the scramble to taste a bit of everything, you end up with a lot of bottles, each with a glass or two remaining. Despite the belief of many of my friends to the contrary, I do not always drink everything in sight. I can open a wine for dinner and have just a glass or two and not finish the bottle.

That wine does not want to be left in that bottle any more than I want to leave it there. Wine isn't like milk, which, with refrigeration, remains relatively unchanged for several days after opening. Once opened, wine changes and usually not for the better. Once oxygen touches the liquid an inexorable chemical process begins. It's called oxidation and the easiest way to understand it is to think of wine like an apple. An apple in its skin, like wine in a bottle, can last for quite a while, but once you open the bottle, it's like cutting into the apple. It is the process called oxidation that almost immediately begins to turn the apple's flesh that unappealing brown. If you leave the cut surface exposed for any length of time, its flavor and aroma also change from fresh apple to the smell of apple cider and then to a metallic, almost rusty smell. The same thing happens with wine, and initially, it's a good thing, as oxidation helps a wine "open up" and gain more rather than less aroma. This is what happens when you open a bottle or put a wine in a decanter to "breathe."

For a couple of hours, all is well, but if you leave wine in the bottle overnight, the aroma starts to fade and the flavor becomes thinner and more metallic. Putting the cork back in the bottle is no help - there is a sizable pocket of air (oxygen) in the bottle with the wine, and the process will continue. Putting the wine in the refrigerator will slow the oxidation slightly, but not enough to keep the wine bright and fresh until the next day.

There are simple several devices you can use to remove some of the air from the bottle, creating a vacuum and reducing the amount of oxygen in contact with the wine. It doesn't prevent oxidation but it slows it down quite a bit and for inexpensive and moderately priced wines, this may be sufficient to leave you with a wine you will still enjoy the next day. There is still a difference, though and if your wine is complex and has those layers of aroma and flavor we wine nuts enjoy, you'll find that even with a good vacuum stopper that your wine loses its edge over the next 24 hours.

There are three options I can suggest, all of which reduce the contact between oxygen and wine better than the vacuum seals. First, buy some wine in half-bottles and use those on occasions where you know you won't finish a full bottle. Often, a half-bottle is enough and there is no left-over wine. Second, keep some empty half-bottles around. Wash them and the next time you have two glasses left over in a full bottle, pour the wine into the half bottle and stopper it - with almost no oxygen space left, your wine will keep in the refrigerator until the next day.

A third option is to buy some marbles or the sort of ceramic beads used to weigh down pie crusts while they're baking. If you take a glass from a full bottle of wine, use the marbles to take up the space left by the wine - again, you'll have only a tiny air space at the top of the bottle and with a good stopper, your wine is protected for a day or two.

There are several products that pump nitrogen, argon or other inert gases into wine bottles that leave the air space, but fill it with a gas that won't react with the wine. These can be tricky to use and can be expensive as well, but it's an option worth exploring with your favorite wine shop.

And then there is the most foolproof method of handling leftover wine - get thirstier friends and finish off the bottles when they're first opened.