Not all wine is meant to age. Not even boxed wine. If you are thinking that putting any wine into a cold cellar is going to change its taste for the better – it won’t. Only a few wines are left to age. The truth is that most wine goes bad after a year or two. You can check “10 Tips How to Age Wine The Right Way” to learn how to age your wine properly.
Red wines tend to last longer than white and sweet wines. While white wine can last 1 year less than the red ones. Even if you do everything right, meet all the criteria, create the perfect conditions – you will not be able to prolong the life of wine if it is not meant to be prolonged.
And by doing everything right, I mean string wine somewhere without sunlight, as ultraviolet rays can make a chemical reaction that can alter the taste of wine for the worse. Having the room or a cellar at just the right temperature and humidity levels won’t help. Nor will the position of the bottles.
Once opened bottled wine can be stored for up to 10 days before it is ruined completely unless you reseal it. However, with boxed wine, you don’t have to go to such lengths. The wine in the box can be reused for up to 6 weeks. The great thing about it is that once the wine starts breathing the wine can be drunk for the next 5-6 weeks. No need to throw it away.
How Oxygen Affects Boxed Wine?
The effect of overexposure to oxygen happens with apples, as well as wine. When you take a bite of an apple and leave it aside, the apple turns brown. The same thing occurs when you open a bottle or a box of wine. The wines, as they say, begins breathing.
Wine can become oxidized if it is exposed to too much oxygen. You might have had a close encounter with oxidized wine when you left your wine glass overnight and decided to take a sip the next day. The taste deteriorated.
Not only will the wine change color but it will also flatten the wine’s flavors and aroma. Oxygen connects with alcohol in wine and starts changing it, which leads to the change in taste as well. In time all wine will get oxidized, some faster while others will get there slower.
In Conclusion
Whether you have opened the wine or if you are thinking of aging and bottling it, there is an expiration date on it. The date is very different for wine that can be aged and the ones that can not be aged.
Then again we need to make a distinction in how to store opened bottles of wine if they can be stored at all. Bottled wine once opened can not last long unless resealed. Boxed wine on the other hand can be stored and used without hesitation for more than a month.
The main reason boxed wine lasts longer than bottled wine is because boxed wine has a valve that seals the entrance instantly. Once it is not in use hence less oxygen comes into contact with the wine.