Half tonight; the remainder tomorrow night. Preservation?

For those of you who generally open a bottle but don’t consume all of it that evening, leaving half a bottle or so to drink the next night, what have you found works well for preserving it so that it’s still good to go that second day? Years ago I would use Vacuvin stoppers, but over time I felt that product wasn’t working all that well for me and . . . well, in all honesty, I didn’t often have an open bottle with any wine in it by the end of that first night. So, any recommendations for products to preserve wine overnight?

Vacuvin.

For nearly any wines of decent quality that are youngish I don’t use anything but the cork. I stand them up in the wine or regular fridge. No issues. For old wines that are well into maturity I’ve been using Repours lately. Most wines are not going anywhere overnight. I would think you only need to worry about something really cheap.

The easy and cheap method that offers the maximum protection against the wine advancing is, right after opening it, to pour a portion through a funnel into a smaller container all the way to the very top (an empty half wine bottle, a plastic water bottle, whatever) and put the cork or screw cap on. Even more if you then put that into the fridge.

Screw cap half bottles! Works like a charm.

I just put the bottle in the fridge. If I know the remainder will be drunk the next day, I don’t even bother with transferring it to a smaller container. If you want to protect the wine from oxidation, temperature is your friend, as all reactions slow down with temperature. Most likely there’s enough oxygen dissolved in the wine from transferring it to a smaller container that keeping the wine in the fridge in its original bottle offers more protection than having the wine in a smaller container at room temperature.

but what if you put that smaller container in the fridge…

Oxygen and heat are the enemy. Refrigerate ASAP.

Well duh.

I normally just don’t bother if the wine is going to be consumed the next day and that would only introduce oxygen into wine. The benefits of limiting oxygen come into play only if the wine is going to be consumed after a week or ao.

This works wonders for me - upon opening the full bottle I transfer half of the bottle into a half bottle and then use a Vacuvin to seal the wine. I then put it in the fridge overnight and typically have no issues. I generally avoid opening anything too delicate to drink over multiple nights.

Pretend that tonight is tomorrow night, and just finish the bottle.

Add me to the list of those who don’t bother with the smaller container - I recork (or use a stopper) and put it back in the cellar. Works fine for me, and we do this all the time as we generally try to limit ourselves to half a bottle a night.

This. Back into the cellar. I bought a case of polycone screwcap bottles like @cfu uses for his Zoom tastings. These keep the wine fresh for at least several days.

For daily drinker whites I usually don’t bother though.

If only for next day I use Vacu Vin or just recork.

I’m with Otto on this view. Been doing this for over 25 years with my regular, every day wines that I drink during the week. Pop and enjoy half of the bottle, shove the cork in, return the other half bottle to the regular fridge. Ok, sometimes I got back for another glass. Many times, especially with the younger winds, the wine is actually better than next day. I popped a young 2016 Bordeaux last night just to sample it, and I’m pretty confident that today it will show better. I have no doubt the transferring the wine to 375 could be better, assuming minimal oxygen exposure during that transfer, but that’s just way too much effort for my regular drinking. I think that we often geek out too much of our wine, storage and serving, and perhaps sometimes a more simple approach leads to greater enjoyment. Now all of that said, I certainly have a different approach with mature wines or very expensive ones. But even then, I don’t think I go to the degree that many of you all do on wine, and yeah perhaps I misse one percent of the wine’s potential, but who really knows.

Very much this.

While I geek wine as much as any wine geek, I really am baffled how so many people bother with transferring to smaller containers, worry about which glass or decanter is best for which wine, let wines stand up months on end just for the sediment, fuss about 1-2 degree serving temperature differences and using the most outlandish gadgets with wine.

I get why anybody would fuss about if a wine was from a different producer, vintage, vineyard or variety than what you ordered, but for me the above list feels more like means to make one’s life more difficult than it need be. But whatever rocks their boats. If fussing about drinking an old Barolo that has been standing up for 4 months from a Burgundy bowl makes one think that it is miles better than the same Barolo that has been sitting up for 2-3 days and is drunk from any good-quality wine glass, go ahead. I myself can pick up a Somlói Juhfark blind and can tell Plavac Mali easily apart from a Vranac, but even I am not that good of a taster!

I use a eurocave sowine (wine art) which does the job and keeps the wine at serving temp.

I’ve had pretty good experience using the Repour stoppers for this purpose (over 2-3 nights).

I have normally just put the bottle with the remaining wine into the fridge. I did the transfer to a half bottle thing for a while, but it didn’t make an appreciable difference over just refrigeration.

In the winter I often leave young red wines on the kitchen counter, but my house is 58 degrees F in winter.

I also just recork and put in the refrigerator. Some white wines, I drink over four days and they stay fine (young wines sometimes improve).

-Al