"Danger zone" for food and beverages left at room temperature

[Arthur Smith]

6 minutes ago, exchemist said:

I meant leaving half of an opened bottle, not a glass, in the fridge. It's still good 24hrs later, although the fizz has subsided to more of a crémant. But still perfectly pleasant

I live in an area that produces carbonated wine, not champagne, Limoux.  Most people seem to possess a clip-on seal that retains the fizz in open, fridge-stored bottles for a few days. We also make Blanquette de Limoux, Méthode Ancestrale, which is only 6%. Not sure if it is available elsewhere but very refreshing on a hot day.

The greased piglet may yet escape, for now.

22 minutes ago, exchemist said:

...fizz has subsided to more of a crémant.

Another shameless plug for Limoux wines. There are three appellations, Ancestrale mentioned, Blanquette de Limoux (major grape variety, Mauzac, not high in acidity) and Crémant de Limoux, which can have up to 60% Chardonnay (the workhorse Champagne grape) so worth considering as an alternative to Champagne.

[exchemist]

1 hour ago, Arthur Smith said:

I live in an area that produces carbonated wine, not champagne, Limoux.  Most people seem to possess a clip-on seal that retains the fizz in open, fridge-stored bottles for a few days. We also make Blanquette de Limoux, Méthode Ancestrale, which is only 6%. Not sure if it is available elsewhere but very refreshing on a hot day.

The greased piglet may yet escape, for now.

Another shameless plug for Limoux wines. There are three appellations, Ancestrale mentioned, Blanquette de Limoux (major grape variety, Mauzac, not high in acidity) and Crémant de Limoux, which can have up to 60% Chardonnay (the workhorse Champagne grape) so worth considering as an alternative to Champagne.

Aha. This is in Languedoc, I see. Interesting. Are these wines made by the méthode champenoise?

[Arthur Smith]

4 minutes ago, exchemist said:

Aha. This is in Languedoc, I see. Interesting. Are these wines made by the méthode champenoise?

Yes. Some smaller producers still use pupitres and hand-turning though most larger coops have automized.

On checking, I see Champagne has also adopted machine remuage.

Edited February 2, 2022 by Arthur Smith

[exchemist]

Just now, Arthur Smith said:

Yes. Some smaller producers still use pupitres and hand-turning though most larger coops have automized.

In that case I should look out for them. I don't drink much champagne, though I keep handy a few bottles of Deutz, which we don't see much in the UK but was introduced to me by my late wife's Oncle Philippe.

In fact, on checking, see the Wine Soc currently has Antech Crémant de Limoux , Héritage 2018 going for £17/bbl. That's a lot cheaper than champagne, certainly. (And also a Blanquette de Limoux but that is semi-sweet so I'll give it a miss.) 

[Arthur Smith]

4 minutes ago, exchemist said:

In that case I should look out for them. I don't drink much champagne, though I keep handy a few bottles of Deutz, which we don't see much in the UK but was introduced to me by my late wife's Oncle Philippe.

In fact, on checking, see the Wine Soc currently has Antech Crémant de Limoux , Héritage 2018 going for £17/bbl. That's a lot cheaper than champagne, certainly. (And also a Blanquette de Limoux but that is semi-sweet so I'll give it a miss.) 

Antech has an excellent reputation for quality. Can speak first-hand! 😇

[Peterkin]

9 hours ago, exchemist said:

So I've explored a number of ways of keeping  opened part-bottles of wine, to last over 2 or more days. 

We have no trouble with bubbly wine - because we don't like it anyway. A modestly priced red quite happily withstands occasional visits over a week or longer, just so we screw the top back on. A slightly higher priced one comes with a cork, which can be replaced with a tight-fitting nylon one (I learned about those temporary corks when I was making my own wine.) I've only ever had one red wine go sour (during a course of antibiotic treatment) and it still made a lovely tofu au vin. Screw-cap whites do well in the fridge or cold pantry for at least a week. The home-made was all in small bottles, and usually shared out immediately on uncorking. 

Lesson, I suppose: don't buy the good stuff in bulk.    

But, come to think of it, my uncles in the old country used to keep a geroboam of Bull's Blood or something red, for whenever male company might turn up, and sweet white or liquor in small bottles for the ladies. In the cold pantry, on the stone floor. I know, because it was rite of passage for a child to be big enough to bring it in.

Edited February 2, 2022 by Peterkin

[exchemist]

1 hour ago, Peterkin said:

We have no trouble with bubbly wine - because we don't like it anyway. A modestly priced red quite happily withstands occasional visits over a week or longer, just so we screw the top back on. A slightly higher priced one comes with a cork, which can be replaced with a tight-fitting nylon one (I learned about those temporary corks when I was making my own wine.) I've only ever had one red wine go sour (during a course of antibiotic treatment) and it still made a lovely tofu au vin. Screw-cap whites do well in the fridge or cold pantry for at least a week. The home-made was all in small bottles, and usually shared out immediately on uncorking. 

Lesson, I suppose: don't buy the good stuff in bulk.    

But, come to think of it, my uncles in the old country used to keep a geroboam of Bull's Blood or something red, for whenever male company might turn up, and sweet white or liquor in small bottles for the ladies. In the cold pantry, on the stone floor. I know, because it was rite of passage for a child to be big enough to bring it in.

I agree screw cap bottles are key. Because I need to restrict myself to 3-3.5 units max, on the evenings when I drink, I use those little quarter bottles you can find in the supermarket and decant into those, fill them to the top to minimise the oxygen exposure and keep them - red and white equally, in the fridge. With most French wine, one of these bottles is 2.5 units approx, giving me headroom for a small sherry or so as an aperitif. As they are only quarter bottles, the reds will come up to drinking temperature after an hour or so out of the fridge. I've found I can keep even the reds for a week this way, without adverse effect on the flavour - sometimes the younger ones even get a bit better from the short air exposure during decanting. I just need to wash out the bottles carefully each time after use. 

 

[Peterkin]

21 minutes ago, exchemist said:

I just need to wash out the bottles carefully each time after use.

Yes! And let dry completely. The ever-nagging, unpleasant chore of manual washing and sterilizing of bottles was one main reason I stopped making wine.  How often I longed for my big, energy-hog of a laboratory glass-washer!

[exchemist]

1 hour ago, Peterkin said:

Yes! And let dry completely. The ever-nagging, unpleasant chore of manual washing and sterilizing of bottles was one main reason I stopped making wine.  How often I longed for my big, energy-hog of a laboratory glass-washer!

Indeed. I dry them in the small oven at 50C for an hour and then loosely screw on the tops, to keep dust out until I am ready to re-use them.

[mistermack]

Buy it in a box. It doesn't go off and you can pour what you want. 

[Peterkin]

19 minutes ago, mistermack said:

Buy it in a box.

I did that in California; you could get some pretty good and plonk at the supermarket. (awful beer, though) It's okay for some Canadian wines - mostly white, so there is a refrigerator space issue. But we don't have a big choice of boxed French at my LCBO outlet.