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There are so many reasons why we all end up with a half bottle of unfinished wine, aren’t there? Dinner for one, and the wine that you want doesn’t come in half bottles; One bottle (or two) wasn’t enough for the dinner party, so another one was opened and not finished; Sometimes just a glass or two is enough. So, what to do with the wine that’s left over?

We have to remember that the main reason for opened bottles of wine going bad is that the wine comes into contact with oxygen. A bit of aeration is a good thing with a young or “closed” wine, but too much oxygen spoils wine in anywhere from a few hours to a few days, depending on the wine. If we want to save our wine, we have to keep it away from air to keep it from oxidizing.

There have been many attempts at solving the problem of dealing with wine leftovers over the years. Many simply didn’t work, while some are awkward or require too much effort. One of these was the idea of filling the bottle with glass marbles until the level of the wine came up almost to the top of the bottle, and then replacing the cork. Can you imagine how many wine glasses must have gotten shattered by the marbles rolling out of the bottle when someone went to pour a glass?

Let’s look at some of the more practical ways of saving your wine.

If you know that you are sometimes only going to drink half of a bottle, save a few empty half bottles and corks in good condition. When you open a full bottle, carefully pour half of the wine into the half bottle, filling it almost to the top. Insert the cork. You want to make sure that there’s as small an amount of airspace as possible. Pour your glasses from the original bottle and save the half bottle for tomorrow’s dinner. I find that this system works well at keeping your wine fresh for a few days, and it costs nothing.

For years, I’ve used the Vac-U-Vin, a system that uses a rubber stopper that has a one-way valve molded into it, and a small hand pump. The stopper goes into the bottle, like a cork, and you place the pump over it. Give it a few pumps and the air is pulled out of the bottle. When you want to drink the wine, you squeeze the stopper to break the vacuum and let air back in. Remove the stopper and pour your wine. Simple to use and, since the stoppers are reusable, very inexpensive over time. I’ve been using the same pump for 15 years.

The problem with the old Vac-U-Vins was that you could over pump. When someone got overzealous in their pumping some of the oxygen that was suspended in the wine came out and you ended up with flat tasting wine. One telltale sign of over pumping was seeing a ring of tiny bubbles forming around the edge of the wine… but when the bubbles appeared, it was too late.

Vac-U-Vin overcame this problem with their Concerto line, which has stoppers that make an audible “click” when the ideal amount of air has been pumped out. If you have the older pump, you can simply buy the Concerto stoppers, since the pumps work with both the older and the newer stoppers.

I first tried Private Preserve when my friend, Claudine Pepin, gave me a can to try. Private Preserve is an aerosol containing a mix of Argon, Nitrogen and Carbon Dioxide. These inert gasses are heavier than the atmosphere and, once you spray the gas into the opened bottle, displace the air to form an invisible blanket over the wine that keeps oxygen from coming into contact with it. These gases do not bond with the wine and form compounds, as does oxygen, so your wine is protected, with no change of taste. When you want to finish off that bottle, simply remove the cork and pour. After you’ve used it on two decent bottles of wine, it has more that payed for itself… and a single can is claimed to be good for about 120 “blasts”.

Private Preserve works beautifully with fortified wines such as Porto, aged Sherry and Madeira. Just give a quick blast of the gas, as the instructions direct, after every sitting.

Now… don’t laugh at this one, OK? If I have a glass of wine left, I’ll sometimes pour it into a zip lock plastic bag and put it into the freezer. The next time that I’m cooking and I need some wine for the stew or sauce, I take it from the freezer a-nd add it to the pan. It doesn’t go to waste!

©2007 The Brooklyn Paper