How Long Does Wine Last?

Can wine go bad?  And does wine go bad?  Unfortunately, not all great things last and wine does go bad. Wine is not like other food and beverage products in that it does not have an expiration date printed on the label, but that’s because unlike most other foods, wine has remarkable longevity.  I’m sure everyone has read an article here or there featuring some bottle of 1945 Mouton Rothschild that according to experts is still tasting well-integrated and lively after 75+ years.  This may lead drinkers to assume that all wines might get better with age.  However, these sorts of articles exist because of the wines’ rarity: they are exceptional wines built for long aging that the vast majority of wine drinkers will never have the opportunity to try.  But that is no cause for despair – in fact there is more good wine available for casual, everyday drinkers now than perhaps ever before in history.  

 How Long Does Wine Last After Opening

 The truth is that most wine is made for immediate consumption.  Most of us don’t have the space or inclination to store cases upon cases of wine until that perfect moment when the wine is at its peak.  What’s more, many wines that are designed for long aging can be fairly expensive.  

 There are a few components to a wine that help determine its ability to age: acidity, tannin, alcohol, and sugar.  The acid is how sour a wine tastes.  The tannins are compounds that give your mouth a drying sensation and can sometimes cause you to feel like you are peeling your lips off your gums.  Tea drinkers will be familiar with tannins, as they are present in high quantities in tea as well as wine.  Imagine the sensation of drinking an oversteeped black tea – the drying bitterness is attributable to tannins.  And alcohol and sugar, well, I think most everyone is familiar with alcohol and sugar.

 To have a sense of how long wine will last, you have to have some idea of where the wine is in its life cycle.  The first clue to this is right on the label for you: the vintage.  This is the year that the grapes were grown, picked, and fermented into wine.  In some cases, as with many white wines, the closer you are to the vintage, the fresher and more appealing the wine will taste.  This is because white wines tend to be very low in tannin, and are often fermented to dryness, ie: no remaining sugar.  They only have one component that would allow them to age: acid.  

 Red wines, on the other hand, usually have a fair amount of tannin present in addition to acid – two protective compounds.  If you think about a red wine that is fairly soft in the mouth versus one that is aggressively drying, which do you think would age longer?  Usually the one that is drying, due to the higher concentration of tannins.  Ports, perhaps some of the most ageable wines in the world contain all the components for longevity: high alcohol (due to fortification), an abundance of tannins, typically a high level of sweetness, and a decent amount of acid.

 So as a general rule of thumb, white wines tend to be better the closer they are to the vintage date.  Red wines typically have more ability to age, but this is dependent primarily on whether they have high or low levels of tannin.  If you are wondering about a bottle’s drinkability and ageability while at a winery or in store, the employees are usually a great resource as they should be familiar with the wines and can give you personalized recommendations based on what you are looking for.

 How To Tell If Wine Is Bad

 Let’s talk about how you know that wine has gone bad.  There are many causes of wine spoilage, but chief among them are oxidation, microbial spoilage, and going “corked.”  

 Oxidation is related to the presence of oxygen in a wine – it can easily react with volatile aroma compounds, dulling them, and changing the fruit aromas and flavors from vivid and crisp to insipid, rotten, and everything in between.  Typically, the cork allows for a very minute flow of oxygen into the wine, which allows for slow, controlled chemical reactions.  However, if the cork fails, or too much oxygen was present during bottling, these changes happen much more rapidly, and the wine will age beyond its prime quickly.  

 Microbial spoilage most often means that the wine begins to taste like vinegar.  This is because one of the main bacteria present in wine does just that: converts alcohol to vinegar.  Even a small amount of what winemakers refer to as “volatile acidity” can change the experience of drinking wine from a pleasant to an unpleasant one.  Another common form of microbial spoilage is caused by a genus of yeasts called Brett (Brettanomyces), and they cause the wine to smell like a barnyard or an old band-aid.  And when a wine is corked, it smells like a damp basement or a pile of wet cardboard.  

 Luckily, as far as wine spoilage goes, there is no increased risk to health from drinking a wine that has gone bad.  There are no microbes that can grow in wine that cause illness, and the worst you will get is a hangover and an unpleasant taste in your mouth.

 As far as opened wine goes, it very much depends on all the factors mentioned above as to how long the wine will stay good.  In a previous post, we gave some recommendations for storing your opened wine.  However, the clock is ticking once you open a bottle.  The wine may stay good for a day or two, or last up to a week, but don’t expect it to last beyond that.