Red wine when you live alone?

I buy those little “single serving” bottles in the four-packs. Most liquor stores will have at least one brand of them, and if you find a really good liquor store you’ll be able to get a decent wine. Mine even has champagne! It usually takes me two or three days to finish one “single serving” bottle (hence the quote marks), but it doesn’t go bad in that amount of time.

I cork it and stick it in the fridge.

I used to drink about two goblets of red wine a night for several years and it didn’t turn as long as I put in somewhere where it wouldn’t get above 80 degrees. Under the sink vanity worked well.

I save my empty coke bottles. Wash them out and pour the leftover wine into them. It will stay good for a couple days in the fridge. Or if you are a stickler for fresh get a nitrogen wine preserver and follow the directions. The nitrogen is heavier than oxygen so it will settle to the surface of the wine in the bottle and preserve the freshness.

@Rarebear Doesn’t it then turn really acidic?

@Neizvestnaya How long could it go for then? A night? A couple of nights? A week? A year?

@WestRiverrat So you just fill them up so the air won’t….. do what air does? I’m not at all schooled in the ways of wine and booze.

@papayalily Probably. I don’t really know wine that well so I can’t tell the difference. I’m much more of a beer geek than a wine person.

Really big glass.

@iamthemob Lol. Unfortunately, I have a test tomorrow, so I’m more in a small glass mood. Otherwise, I’ll confuse Slope-Point form and Slope-Intercept form.

Either put it in the fridge or pump the air out of it with one of those things. Even if it does get to a point a week later where it tastes vinegary and bad, I just mix it with orange juice and club soda and it tastes delish. Totally masks the bad taste, still gets you drunk. Badabing!

I’d drink the whole damn bottle.

If it does start tasting vinegary and bad you can still use it to cook with. Or mix it with oil and seasoning for use as a marinade or salad dressing.

I’d just drink the bottle too :-/ although it’s still good for several days after opening…...

Really fine wine should be used up soon after opening. The less fancy varieties are not going to deteriorate as much over a week or so in the fridge.

I know this is supposed to be tacky, but buy a box. Decant a glass at a time. It’s fine for months.

http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/24/the-argument-for-boxed-wine/

laureth nailed it. Buy the box. The unused part keeps forever. It’s what most restuarants use now. It’s no longer tacky, it’s what the guy at the neighborhood liquor store recommends.

@WestRiverrat – don’t cook with bad wine, unless you could also use vinegar in that recipe. But the marinade or salad dressing idea is a good one!

@papayalily: I lived in a place where the summer temps could be over 100 degrees outside and about 80 inside and my wine bottle would be fine for about 3 days total which is about the same amount of time as it took to finish one.

Around here, the red wine tends to last several days. I can’t speak for the quality, since I don’t really drink it all that often.

Red wines oxidize differently from whites or rose. The polyphenolic compounds are the grapes’ first line of defense against oxidation. The polyphenols translate into tannic structure in reds. So then, red wines with higher tannins are going to oxidize slower and, therefore, taste better the second day than wines with less tannic structure. It’s as if the oxygen comes at the wine and the tannins say, “No! Take me first!” Red wines without this line of defense are going to suffer from a lack of fruit structure and a sense of higher acidity (although the acid structure is the same, it just will seem more pronounced due to oxidized tannins and fruit.).

What do I do? I drink the whole bottle.
What would I do if I were you? Well pumping some of the air out (using a vacu-vin stopper or similar) and then refrigerating will slow oxidation. The compressed nitrous works well too, but is far more costly.
Another idea I’ve just come across, Buy a bag of clear glass decorator marbles, like you would find in the bottom of a flower arrangement. After you’ve poured your one (drink more, already!) glass you displace the empty space in the bottle with enough (clean!) marbles to fill that space. Recork, and you’re good to go. The marbles will sink to the bottom of the bottle, so be careful when pouring the remaining glasses. There will be a bit of a mess cleaning the marbles when the bottle is finished, however.

To all posters here: That bottle is no good after two days. Enjoy drinking it by yourself (it will get the job done) but please don’t serve it to guests.