Typing with hooves can be challenging (to say nothing of opening bottles, swirling and holding wine glasses). But where there’s a will, there’s a way.
I welcome all your wine-related questions!
winellama AT gmail.com
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winellama 
OK Winellama, here’s my question. I love a nice glass of red wine at the end of a long day but I certainly can’t finish a bottle on my own. Is there any way to adequately keep an already open bottle of red wine for a few days?
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Trish, how wonderful that you should ask this question! In fact, on last night’s exam they asked this very one. You have a few options – the first being to drink and enjoy the entire bottle in one evening. Now, Winellama knows that sadly, this is not always an option. In lieu, you can do a few things. One is to purchase a ‘vacu-vin’ system which is very reasonable and essentially uses a rubber stopper and vacuum pump to remove the O2 from the wine bottle. To improve upon this, store the bottle in the fridge (cool temperatures will reduce the effects of oxidation but be sure to take reds out well in advance of drinking them – so they can warm up to 13c for light reds and 15-18c for medium and full bodied reds). The other option is to spend a couple $100 on a nitrogen blanket system. This is quite effective, but usually a little pricey for most. Some restaurants have great systems but they can cost up to $4K. Your final option if all else fails is to invite me over to help you with leftovers 😛
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Hi Winellama 🙂 When should I decant a wine and why?
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Hello there, Al. This is a good question! I think there’s a lot of misinformation out there about decanting. Essentially the only reason you’d need to decant a wine would be to ensure you do not pour out sediment into your friend’s (or your own) glass when serving. This is only necessary for a wine that has not been fined or filtered – or for one that has bottle aged for many years (about 10+). The crunchy, sandy stuff won’t kill you, but it isn’t pleasant to drink and can detract from your overall wine enjoyment! I know many believe decanting to allow air to mix with the wine is important for red wines in particular and especially for very expensive and old wines. However, the amount of air that will mix with a wine when it is being decanted is quite minimal and I know many experts (ie: my WSET instructor and others) will argue that a vigorous ‘pour’ of the wine will actually get more air into the glass than you can if you decant the entire bottle prior to serving. Some folks also like to use the ‘venturi’ style aerators that one pours wine through directly enroute to the glass. I have one and have used it in the past. I’m not so sure though that it actually changes the wine in any way whatsoever to be honest. It’s kind of fun and makes a great sound though!
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I just posted on the saint vivant sight.
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Thanks for the comment!
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Hey, winellama. Nice to meet you at Garagist last weekend (or was it the one before?). In any case, I wanted to know if you had tried any of the wines from http://www.osoyooslarose.com/Vintages ? I had a couple (it’s been a while so I forgot which ones exactly), but I had a hard time telling it was not a fine Bordeaux! Canada rocks.
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Zander – did you see my latest on Pender Island’s Sea Star? You really must visit them. They’re sensationally excellent.
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Hi Winellama,
Nice to see you here. Looks like you are enjoying retirement!! 🙂 I would love to take a sommelier course or something similar in Victoria and wondered if you had any suggestions? Also, I think the best wine bar in Victoria is Bodega…do you know of any others?
Thank you!
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Well hello there! Nice to see you too! The best quality wine courses would be available via Vessel Liquor store down in Oak Bay. Give them a call! As for wine bars, or at least restos with amazing lists? Hmmm, my list would include OLO, Fol-Epi, Part + Parcel, BeLove… Have you tried any of them? I hope they’ll all be opening soon again…
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Thank you! I have not tried any of them. Will give it a go after COVID19 lockdowns. 🙂
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