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As much as we wish we could preserve the magic of our favorite bottles forever, wine has a shelf life. While some wines get better with age, once you uncork the bottle, the clock starts ticking.
An easier way to explain this is by comparing opening a bottle of wine to slicing into an apple. They’re both fragile fruit products, and as such, both the apple flesh and the wine begin to immediately react to oxygen.
In the case of the apple, it begins to brown. With wine, “the flavors begin to make their journey to vinegar while wafting away all the more delicate characteristics of the wine along the way.
Why can an open bottle of whiskey or liquor last for years? Even though wine has alcohol, acidity, and other ingredients that help preserve it, the lower alcohol and sugar content in wine contributes to wine's shorter shelf life!
So how long do you really have before an open bottle of wine starts to taste off? the exact shelf life of an open bottle depends on a variety of factors, such as the alcohol level, tannins, and acidity of the wine, as higher levels of each of these help to preserve an open bottle of wine a bit longer. You can refer to the guide below to determine whether or not your wine is safe to drink!
- One day or less: Most sparkling wines and wines made without added sulfites
- Two to three days: Low-alcohol white and rosé wines
- Four to seven days: Oak-aged white wines, as well as white and rosé wines with 13% or more alcohol, off-dry wines, and most red wines
- Seven days or more: Most dessert wines and fortified wines