Wine at the restaurant? Take it home! Here's how not to ruin an open bottle
It may happen that bottles are not finished once uncorked, but that is no reason not to open or order them. In storage, the important thing is to try to limit the wine's contact with the air: this is how
3' min read
3' min read
We often repeat that good wines are the ones that finish. However, there are rules related to health and also to the highway code (and responsibility, I might add!) that suggest not draining that bottle to the last drop. Drinking wine means savouring, tasting, accompanying food, recognising a culture and a tradition that are not born for the purpose of getting high but with much nobler intentions. And then also to experience a social situation, why not? Wine is conviviality, it has been for millennia - not only here in our country - and I see so much poetry in its tale and in its tradition that unites. Indeed, wine on our tables is not a divisive subject.
What do you do, though, when the bottle is not finished? It often happens that you go to a restaurant, order a wine and, depending on the number of diners, you may not finish it (and certainly not because that wine is not good). Personally, in these cases I ask for the bottle to be re-corked and - without any fuss - I take it home where I can happily finish it the next day, sometimes with some pleasant surprises due to the increased oxygenation.
As an alternative, I suggest you choose half-bottles with goodwill from their detractors, since they do not enjoy the sympathy of self-styled experts and oenophiles. After all they decently fulfil a demand that is hardly covered by the offer of wine by the glass. In fact, in most restaurants it is not easy to find an adequate pouring proposal and it ends up that we have to adapt to the pouring.
One system that has caught on to give the possibility of tasting important glasses is the use of the 'Coravin'. The Coravin makes it possible to taste even a single goblet while preserving the organoleptic characteristics of the bottle for a long time under nitrogen. This valuable tool, however, isstill uncommon in our restaurant industry.
Returning instead to tasting in our homes: what should we do when good wine in bottles is left over? A simple and effective solution that I recommend is to use the 'Vacuum Vin', basically a kind of pump that sucks in air, slowing down the oxidative process. However, avoid storing for more than 4 to 5 days. The use of Coravin for domestic and everyday use, on the other hand, is less suitable unless you have a well-stocked cellar and above all a great depth of vintages.
