Tips to keep your wine fresh.How long does wine last? And how long does wine last? Let’s first examine what “gone off” means when it comes to wine.

Has your wine gone bad?

It’s not too difficult to deduce whether your bottle has gone off. If you’ve left it open for a few days, give it a sniff and – if you’re brave enough – have a taste. If it’s changed colour, developed an unpleasant odour, or its tasting notes have fouled, it’s very likely your bottle’s gone off. Typically, bad wine will either taste vinegary or like gone-off fruit.

But don’t worry, bad wine is still technically drinkable, so you needn’t worry about it being harmful for your body. That said, it isn’t pleasant to drink.

Ways to keep the wine fresh

Avoid oxygen at all costs

Grapes harbour certain bacteria that can turn the alcohol content in wine to acetic acid. However, these bacteria require oxygen to grow.

As a result, when you pop open the cork of your wine, you’ve already let the process begin.

There are some wines, however, that can in fact thrive when in contact with oxygen. Certain bottles of red can improve when left in a decanter for a short period or double decanting where you pour out the wine and the pour it back into the bottle. Additionally, some wines are deliberately exposed to oxygen to varying degrees as part of the style; for example, Sherry, Madeira and natural sweet wines.

However, this is mostly not the case, and you should generally try to keep the air away from opened bottles of wine.

Understand shelf life

How long does wine last and keep it fresh? Now that’s a good question. The quickest answer is that it depends. A higher quality wine will take longer to go off than a cheap bottle, for instance, and the way you choose to store your wine will have a strong impact, too.

Still, we do have some helpful benchmarks to give you a clearer idea. If stored correctly:

Sparkling wine will last between one-two days
A nice, corked bottle of red wine will last for three to five days
Full-bodied white wines will keep fresh for five days
Light-bodied whites and rose can last seven days
Fortified wine (such as port ,sherry, natural sweet wines) can last up to twenty days

Keep it cool, corked and crisp

Cold temperatures can help to slow down the oxidation process and keep the wine fresh, and therefore its best to keep red wines or fortified wines in a cool, dark place and white wines in the fridge. For more information on the exact temperatures you should be storing specific bottles of wine, take a look at our informative blog post on the topic.

On top of this, always ensure you use a wine stopper or a cork to reduce the amount of oxygen entering the bottle.