Should I throw out an open bottle of Merlot?
The process by which wine “ages” is something which chemists call oxidation and consists of volatile chemicals within the wine combining with oxygen. This process happens very slowly while the wine is stored in the corked bottle because very little oxygen is present (there’s very little space above the liquid to contain the gas and very little diffusion through the cork takes place). Once you’ve opened the bottle, lots of oxygen is introduced and the process takes place much faster, especially if some liquid is removed from the bottle and pouring takes place (as the pouring mixes up the gas and the liquid). Although good wine improves with a certain amount of aging, it’s much better done slowly in a still sealed bottle. A little improvement can be obtained by opening and decanting a wine which is still too you, but not for more than a few hours. Leaving a bottle of wine which has been opened for a matter of months is a very long time indeed and the wine will probably be almost undrinka
