Keep wine, spirits, and liqueurs in excellent, dark locations.
Because of oxidation, opened bottles may deteriorate over time, lose flavour and colour, and, in some circumstances, spoil.
Once opened, aromatized wines like vermouth and amaro need to be chilled.
It’s essential to know how to store your alcohol correctly to retain its flavour, whether you’re the kind of person who loves to have a stocked home bar for the occasional nightcap or cocktail party or you frequently receive gifts of various bottles of alcohol after the holidays.
Although it can happen with wine and some liqueurs, your main worry shouldn’t be the drink “turning bad,” unlike food. (If the wine you’re drinking has changed, you’ll likely notice straight away since it will taste like vinegar.) Instead, the decline in taste and quality is the bigger problem. Nobody likes to be given an expensive bottle of alcohol as a gift only to find out that it has degraded in quality before you can even taste it our shop late night alcohol delivery mississauga.
Allen Katz, a co-founder of the New York Distilling Company, observed that convenience and preservation are constantly at odds with home storage of distilled spirits. Nevertheless, there are fundamental rules for preserving alcohol at home, even if you don’t have a wine cellar. Here’s how to keep your bottles in good condition.
Consider your bottle’s vampires, and protect them from heat and sunshine.
This is essentially the golden guideline for how to store any alcohol. “You want to store them in an area that keeps a reasonable cold temperature (or just avoid warm temperatures like near a radiator or against a wall that receives a lot of sunshine) and avoids natural light,” Katz said.
At a gathering in 2015, Bacardi researchers gave a thorough presentation on the impact of heat and light on alcohol. Their internal testing revealed that light and heat might alter liquor’s colour and flavour by dissolving its organic components. Again, you won’t become sick from this type of degeneration (unless you drink excessively), but it isn’t the kind of “age” that distillers and vintners labour so diligently to produce.
The most excellent chance of degradation exists in opened bottles.
Theoretically, unopened bottles of wine and spirits should last for years with careful storage. But chances are you’ll keep some opened bottles for a while unless you’re throwing a party or purchasing nippers exclusively. Vodka and other alcoholic beverages don’t go bad after they’re opened, but their quality does decline with time.
The Bacardi experts also shared some of their studies on the effects of oxidation—the impact of air on alcohol—on the same occasion. You’ll want to take some measures to prevent this, as exposure to air may eliminate some of the flavours in wine and spirits, frequently leaving behind the more potent, acidic ones to overshadow the taste. First, use the stoppers or caps that come with the bottles; of course, it is common sense. Try to buy something in lesser quantities, especially if it’s a liqueur or something else you won’t use much of at once. Additionally, avoid leaving the final few ounces alone since liquid oxidizes more quickly in bottles with less liquid.
Wine can oxidize even after it has not been opened. To prevent the cork from drying out, shrinking, and allowing air in, store your wine on its side, such as on a wine rack.
How to do this right.
Wine must chill some unsealed bottles.
Vermouths and amaro are two examples of aromatized wines that alcohol should chill after opening to prevent oxidation, according to Katz.
Make sure you stay in your opened vermouth with your gin or vodka if you enjoy the occasional martini. Fortified wines lose taste with time, producing a very stale beverage. Expect it to last less than a straight spirit if you don’t keep it adequately packed in the refrigerator.
