Tips for Preserving Your Italian Wine At Home

Imagine for a moment that you’ve just come back home from work. You’ve had a rough day and nothing in the world sounds better than a nice glass of Italian wine by the fire. You want to relax and unwind to allow the stresses of the day to just melt away.

But there’s a problem. You pour your wine and take the first sip. Something seems to be off. The wine had completely lost its quality and you end up disappointed.

It’s an upsetting situation and it’s one that many wine lovers have encountered at some point in their drinking history.

It can also leave you asking one big question – how do I preserve a bottle of wine?

You want your wine to keep its quality for as long as possible. But you have limited options for storage at home. How do you keep your wine tasting great?

There are several techniques that you can use. Here, we’re going to take a look at a few that you can use in your own home to ensure that your wine is as amazing as you expect it to be.

Buy a Wine Fridge

Most bottles of white wine taste best when they’re served chilled. Leaving the wine out gives it a lukewarm flavour that takes away from its sharpness.

But did you know that different wines have different ideal temperatures. In many cases, the temperature of your fridge won’t match that ideal temperature.

It’s not a big issue at first. If you drink the wine quickly, there usually aren’t many major effects.

But the longer you leave the wine at a non-optimal temperature, the more likely it is that the wine will lose its quality.

A special wine fridge allows you to set the temperature so that it’s absolutely perfect for the wine.

There’s another advantage to this tactic too. With a dedicated fridge, your wine is less likely to come into contact with contaminants that may roam around your fridge.

Wine fridges are typically quite small and affordable. Consider investing in one if preserving a white wine is something that you hope to do.

Preserving an Open Red

The fridge isn’t only an option for white wines.

Many don’t know that you can use it to preserve a red too.

Now, we’re not recommending that you put an unopened bottle of red wine in the fridge. Such bottles are best left at room temperature until you’re ready to open them.

Instead, the fridge becomes a good idea if you have an open bottle of Italian red wine that you intend to finish off later.

Refrigerating the wine slows the ageing process, which is crucial for a bottle of red. You’ve likely opened the wine at the peak of its powers, which makes further ageing undesirable. The fridge can keep things slow and help the wine to last longer.

Of course, you don’t want to drink the wine cold. Remove it from the fridge about 30 minutes before drinking to allow it to reach the right temperature again.

Keep it Dark

No matter what type of Italian wine you want to preserve, there’s a cardinal rule that you should always follow.

Keep it dark.

Ultraviolet light shining onto a bottle of wine speeds up the ageing process. You may think the wine’s been aged to perfection by the time you open it. But too much sunlight may have taken it past the point of no return, which leaves you with a disappointing drink.

Keep the wine in a dark location. The fridge works well for white wines. For reds, place them in a cupboard or anywhere else that’s away from the light if you don’t have a dedicated wine cellar.

Vacuum Closing

As soon as air enters a bottle of wine, it starts to change the composition of the drink. All sorts of chemical reactions take place, which change the taste of the wine.

Sometimes this is desirable. In fact, many wines benefit from a period of aerating.

However, there will be times that you want to eliminate the possibility of any air spoiling the wine once the bottle’s opened. That’s where a vacuum closing device can help.

These simple devices seal the top of the bottle to ensure no air gets in. More importantly, they also suck any excess air out of the bottle too. This creates a vacuum seal that preserves the wine until you’re ready to reopen the bottle and continue drinking.

Best of all, you can find just such a device on the Xtrawine website.

Keep it Steady

This is another tip that many forget about. The more movement that your bottle of wine endures, the less likely it is to maintain its structure and quality.

Remember that wine is essentially a very balanced drink that needs as little disruption as possible. If the bottle is rolling, rattling, or otherwise moving in storage, you’re losing the balance and structure that make it so special.

The obvious point is to not place a bottle on its side unless it’s secured properly.

However, you’ll also want to avoid storing bottles of wine near washing machines or tumble dryers. The shaking of these machines can cause vibrations in the bottle, which ruins the quality of the wine.

Pour it Into a Smaller Bottle

Let’s assume that you don’t have a vacuum sealer.

Is there anything else that you can do to prevent air from damaging the wine?

As it happens, the solution is simpler than you think. Just transfer the wine to a smaller bottle.

The aim is to use a bottle that leaves as little spare space for air as possible.

It’s not a perfect solution, by any means. Even a little air can damage the wine over time. But you’ll certainly slow the process, which makes this a good choice if you intend to drink the rest of a bottle soon after opening.

The Final Word

These tips will all help you to preserve your wine’s quality so that you always enjoy a nice drink. Best of all, you can use all of them at home. Only two require you to buy extra accessories and none require anything that takes up too much space.