If you are like my wife and I, you enjoy having dinner with friends—no matter who is hosting. Recently, one of our friends, who are part of our multi-family, rotating “Gourmet Club,” invited us to their home. This evening it was just the four of us—not the entire group. As we sat down the husband brought out a couple bottles of wine. One was a Pinot Noir; the other, a minor appellation Bordeaux. I was excited by the variety, but upon closer inspection, I noticed the bottles were less than half-full. I commented that they appeared to be the same types of wines they served us when they hosted one of the recent club dinners.
They informed me that they were not just the same “types” of wines; they were, in fact, the very same bottles left over from the dinner they hosted six weeks earlier! They had re-corked and stored the bottles in a cabinet for the last six weeks! Other than being “pour-able,” or “roto-rooter quality,” I do not know enough wine tasting descriptors to charitably describe them. They were not just “over the hill,” they were comatose, barely on life support. The point being, other than storing them until they are dead, what does one do with left over bottles of wine? One of my brothers used to pour all leftover dinner wines, no matter how varietally different, into one bottle. A sort of Zinfandel/Cabernet/Pinot Noir, “Tailgate Red” as it were. Interesting, but . . . .
If you’re a routine dinnertime wine drinker, put your unfinished wines immediately into the refrigerator, even if it’s red. The cold stabilization slows down the oxidation. If it’s white, and is within several days, uncork it and enjoy a glass. No special treatment needed. If it’s red, uncork it, pour it into a tumbler and “nuke” in the microwave for about five or six seconds and enjoy it with your food of the moment. (Trust me, it works and doesn’t affect the wine.) If, on the other hand you’re concerned about affecting an otherwise special wine by nuking it, then remove it from the fridge and let it come down to your preferred drinking temperature.
If you drink wine infrequently and won’t or can’t do the above, then still initially put it into the fridge, but use it periodically in your cooking. Deglaze the pan in which you’ve roasted that chicken or leg of lamb. Or, add a half cup or so to your purchased or homemade spaghetti sauce. The alcohol burns off but flavor lingers. Or, if you have a near-full bottle and don’t plan to use it sometime soon, chop up some onions, carrots, celery and garlic and sauté them a bit. Add the wine and an equal amount of chicken or beef broth, a pinch or two of thyme and savory, and reduce the mixture by half. Taste the sauce along the way and adjust flavors as needed with salt, pepper, etc. Freeze it for later use. When its time to use it, add some butter to enrich it and pour over your grilled steak or whatever else is on the plate. And then uncork a fresh bottle and pour yourself a glass.
– Tom Barras
