How long can unopened wine be stored at room temperature?
I had some leftover table-red wine from a recent party (about a case and a half). It accidently got stored at room temperature for a week instead of in the basement. The bottles were screw tops and the wine was unopened. Some of the bottles had been previously chilled during the party. When I opened one of the bottles today the wine seemed slightly brown and tasted off. I didn’t think it could have gone bad so quickly. Is this a storage issue or could the wine have already been bad? THANKS!!
Tagged with: red wine • room temperature • screw tops • storage
Filed under: All Things Wine
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A week at room temperature won’t make a difference, unless it was in direct sunlight. If the wines had been previously opened, which is a bit harder to tell with screwcaps, it will degenerate much faster and could be the cause of the wine tasting off. But normal room temp at a week is very common.
The wine went bad… I realize that we tend to forget to keep uncorked wine in the rooms rather than refigerators, but that’s why we have coolers too.. put ice and keep things cool. Was the wine too expensive to throw-out ?? hehehe.
I’ve been there once too-many-times.. and there’s nothing like drinking "spoiled" wine.
Room temp isn’t the killer for unopened wines. Temperature fluctuation and vibration are no-nos. The fridge to room temp shift probably wasn’t great for it, but I’d guess the wine is fine.
If the cap was still sealed and it never got really hot, I’d guess it was fine.
It shouldn’t have gone off in a week. Screw-tops generally don’t have the best of wines in the bottle at any rate, so it’s hard to comment.
screw top wines are not usually bad if the seal is not broken. In fact I have never opened a screw top wine that has been bad…. I don’t believe that storage is an issue if it has only been out a week. You cane keep reds for a long time if you store them in a cool dry place ( at least a year) unopened. about 4 -5 days if they are opened. Next time that you are at an upscale wine store…. look for a product called vac-cork, it is a rubber cork that you put on the opened bottle and use a small hand pump that will take the air out of the bottle. It will extend the bottle life to approx. 14 days