Opened and waiting

I had a rather involved dinner party and had an extra bottle of very nice 2007 California Cabernet Sauvignon left over. Before I left the wine shop, I had it opened so I could make sure it was sound (No TCA) I tasted perhaps a 1/3 of an ounce. I then took my corker and re corked the bottle with the original cork. We ended up not needing the wine so it is sitting in my cellar at 58 degrees. Will this wine last a year or two or should I drink it now?

Hi Gary,
If the “screw” didn’t go through the cork, re-corking it with the original cork is no problem. If you know the ‘screw” went through (the original cork is now compromised) use a new cork. Waiters hinged or double stage corkscrew allows me not to screw the auger through the cork and still drive it out.

Salute

Thanks for the reply. This bottle had a 2" cork on it and the screw did not go all the way through so I guess I can keep it for a while.

[Jenise]

To be doubly sure, use an Ah-So to pull the next cork you remove and put that cork in the other bottle.

[David M. Bueker]

Really...really? The wine has been opened. The head space has been somewhat increased. Oxygen has been introduced & people are saying it's ok to leave it alone for a year?

I sorely doubt it.

I'm with David. No way I'd try to hold a wine where it had been opened, tasted, and recorked.

To be doubly sure, use an Ah-So to pull the next cork you remove and put that cork in the other bottle.

Or use a Coravin, or so they say...

Mark Lipton

[Jenise]

Really...really? The wine has been opened. The head space has been somewhat increased. Oxygen has been introduced & people are saying it's ok to leave it alone for a year?

I sorely doubt it.

You're right! I missed the part about hanging onto it for another year; thought it was a short-term hold.

Simply top it off with anything remotely close, merlot, cab, bordeaux, and you will be pleasantly surprised with the wine 1-3 years from now. I have, on several occasions, opened a wine that was clearly "shut-down", no nose at all, so if I had poured any of the wine I would top off the bottle with whatever I had opened to replace it, and slammed the cork back in place. Opening 1-2 years later to be greeted with a wonderfully open wine. Try it, you will be surprised.

Gary, what is the “fill level” of this bottle (after taking a sip)? Could you drive the cork deeper into the neck without getting to close to the shoulder?

Salute

[Jenise]

Simply top it off with anything remotely close, merlot, cab, bordeaux, and you will be pleasantly surprised with the wine 1-3 years from now. I have, on several occasions, opened a wine that was clearly "shut-down", no nose at all, so if I had poured any of the wine I would top off the bottle with whatever I had opened to replace it, and slammed the cork back in place. Opening 1-2 years later to be greeted with a wonderfully open wine. Try it, you will be surprised.

Nice to know! I've just left closed wines out until they opened up enough to be drinkable, but never considered trying to get more maturity out of one. Will reconsider next time.

Simply top it off with anything remotely close, merlot, cab, bordeaux, and you will be pleasantly surprised with the wine 1-3 years from now. I have, on several occasions, opened a wine that was clearly "shut-down", no nose at all, so if I had poured any of the wine I would top off the bottle with whatever I had opened to replace it, and slammed the cork back in place. Opening 1-2 years later to be greeted with a wonderfully open wine. Try it, you will be surprised.

This is what the chateaus do when they re-cork old bottles, is it not?

This is what the chateaus do when they re-cork old bottles, is it not?

Generally chateaux try to use same wine (if you bring in couple cases they sacrifice a bottle for the other 23) although I think at the Penfolds recorking clinics they use current vintage. When they open to assess, they generally put on inert gas. I think they also sparge after topping off immediately before putting in new cork. Even so, reconditioned bottles sell at a discount to virgin bottles with good fills (at least in Bdx).

I've heard of people adding a tiny touch of sulphur, but that seems crazy to me.

Personally, I love trying a wine for what it is meant to be. Sometimes a wine is shut down, well, I'll just follow it through night (and following night) to see what happens. I'd rather taste a 2002 Leoville Barton that isn't giving than a 95% LB/5 % Mayacamas Merlot.

Peter Hellman in "Departures"
TO CORK OR NOT RECORK

As wines age, their corks can deteriorate to the point that they are no longer airtight. The wine then begins to evaporate, and oxygen entering the bottle can spoil the contents. It’s a universal problem, one that winemakers once prevented by removing the old cork, topping off the bottle, injecting protective inert gas, and inserting a new, airtight cork, a process that could extend a bottle’s life for decades. But these days most top houses have stopped providing the service. “We’ve found that for old bottles, it can do more harm than good,” explains Hervé Berland, Mouton Rothschild’s executive director. As Château Margaux’s winemaker, Paul Pontallier, notes, “even in the best possible conditions, exposure to air during the process can damage the wine.”

[Jenise]

Peter Hellman in "Departures"
TO CORK OR NOT RECORK

As wines age, their corks can deteriorate to the point that they are no longer airtight. The wine then begins to evaporate, and oxygen entering the bottle can spoil the contents. It’s a universal problem, one that winemakers once prevented by removing the old cork, topping off the bottle, injecting protective inert gas, and inserting a new, airtight cork, a process that could extend a bottle’s life for decades. But these days most top houses have stopped providing the service. “We’ve found that for old bottles, it can do more harm than good,” explains Hervé Berland, Mouton Rothschild’s executive director. As Château Margaux’s winemaker, Paul Pontallier, notes, “even in the best possible conditions, exposure to air during the process can damage the wine.”

So, duct tape?

Displace the headspace with marbles, to bring it up within a half inch of the bottom of the cork (do they still play with marbles?) Too bad the temperature was decreased from room temperature, because gas, including oxygen, dissolves to a greater extent the colder the solvent (wine, in this case), so ideal would have been to slightly heat the wine before it was exposed to air, then cork it after displacing the headspace and then decrease the temp. But since forcing in the cork without vaccuum will force oxygen into solution because of the headspace pressure, the answer is that the wine will inevitably be changed, although you may luck out with it lasting at least as a drinkable wine. Better to have kept the bottle sealed, and played roulette that it wouldn't be corked when you finally got around to drinking it.

Nice to know! I've just left closed wines out until they opened up enough to be drinkable, but never considered trying to get more maturity out of one. Will reconsider next time.

Waiting on a wine to "open up" can be any where from 4 hours to 4 days. Kind of hard to plan a meal around that, and we are usually talking a fairly substantial wine that is "shut down". And "shut down" is not the same as a wine that needs to "open up", they won't. This is not a "first time" concept, but something you will be able to detect, after 3 or 4 episodes, a wine that is shut down "hard". Even after a decant it will not exhibit any aromas at all. Rather than gamble on a wine coming around in an hour or two, just go for another wine. This is one of the reasons that we decant (along with detecting a "corked" wine or otherwise spoiled wine). I am not talking about a wine that you have followed over several years; one that you are able to anticipate the probable decant time if it's close to being ready. I am following the '05 Camensac (Haut-Medoc) and after 3 bottles you can tell that it is coming around nicely. But recently an '05 Carrone-St.Gemme was obviously disagreeable, so back in the cork went (I usually pout the little bit in my glass back into the bottle and re-cork, and expect to reopen sooner rather later (may a year, but if I forget about it for 2-3 years that's OK. If you are paying attention you learn something every time you pull a cork, the only problem is remembering it.

Every now and then I open a bottle during the week and pour half of it into a 375 half bottle for later use.
Even with young wines, they never lasted more than a week.

Once the wine has been exposed to open air, its on a fast track down.

As for re-corking, this is done in an oxygen fre environment.

Eli