Opened bottles of wine can still be savored another day

Oxygen can be a friend and a foe to those looking to enjoy a glass of wine.

While oxygen helps impart rich flavors shortly after a bottle is opened, wine often becomes less palatable if exposed to the air for an extended period of time.

How do Finger Lakes wineries save their opened bottles of wine to make sure that customers get an accurate taste of the products? Almost all of the wineries I have visited write the date that the bottle was opened right on the label. They then decide how many days the wine will keep before the remainder is discarded.

In an article for Bartending Magazine, reporter Joseph Delissio wrote that keeping wines in the refrigerator slows down their deterioration. Several area wineries use systems that remove air from the bottle to reduce oxidation. Some even replace the air in the bottle with nitrogen gas when the bottle is stoppered at the end of the day.

Here are a few suggestions you may want to use for storing an opened bottle of wine at home:

If it is a fortified wine, such as a ruby port, you may want to just loosely replace the cork in the bottle when you are done pouring that day. The high alcohol content in fortified wines makes them more stable than most other wines.

These types of wines may be suitable for decorative bottle stoppers that are available at many winery gift shops.

If you are interested in reducing oxidation in your opened wine bottle, Vacu Vin may have the solution you are looking for. With a Vacu Vin, you can pump most of the air out of opened bottles of wine and prevent oxidation. According to the company's Web page, more than 25 million original Vacu Vin Vacuum Wine Savers are in use around the world, making it the world's best-selling branded wine accessory.

Several area retailers carry the stoppers and pump at their checkout counters. The rubber stopper seals shut after the air is drawn out of the bottle by pulling up on the pump. They are easy to use and a set, including two stoppers and a pump, costs less than $15.

For those looking for the latest thing, the deluxe version of the Vacu Vin, the Concerto, features a new larger pump with an ergonomic handle. A special vacuum indicator has also been added. It makes a click sound when the correct vacuum level has been reached. The concerto Vacu Vin costs a few dollars more.

Wine Enthusiast magazine suggests another way to preserve wine flavor in an elegant, yet simple fashion. The magazine markets a Wine For Later Decanter Set, featuring glass decanters that are the size of a half-bottle and a quarter-bottle of wine.

The set comes with a glass funnel for pouring wine into the decanters. After one of the smaller containers is filled, a glass stopper creates an airtight seal to preserve the flavor of the wine. The finishing touch, though, is the silver plated cork pin. It attaches to both ends of the cork that then is hung around the neck of the decanter to remind you which wine has been saved.

With the Wine For Later Decanter set priced close to $40, I think I will stay with the original Vacu Vin to preserve my wines.

Jeff Richards' wine column appears each Thursday on the Twin Tiers Life Food Page. For comments or questions, he can be reached at 607/271-8279 or 800/836-8970, ext. 279, or e-mail: thewineguy