Left Over Wine

Left Over Wine

By: Paul Kreider

I am assuming your house is normal and you have had this experience: after opening a couple of bottles of wine, or more, for a party or dinner for several friends, at evenings end you have a collection of bottles, some completely empty and some still containing some wine. I have several thoughts for you.

First, take note of which bottles have no wine left in them. Among winemakers, that is the test of a wine that will sell well. Forget your numbers, reviews and ratings, the bottles that are empty at the end of the event are the ones people like to drink. Conversely, those with wine left in them are less favored, regardless of price or pedigree.

The next thought is what to do with all those small amounts of leftover wine. Heres what I do, assuming I have had all I want to drink: I pour all of them into one bottle, making my own secret blend. The purpose here is to fill a bottle up to the top so I can place a stopper or cork into it and keep the air out over night. Sometimes this takes a combination of different sized bottles, but it keeps the wine blend (usually mostly red) drinkable until my next step, usually a day or longer later.

I make wine coolers out of it. Tall glass, ice, red wine blend and lemon/lime soda (Sprite or 7-Up) to the top of the glass. Or for a more adult taste, try quinine water or tonic. If you are curling your lip at this moment, it is only because you have never tasted one. Under a different brand name and with a slightly different formulation, these are called wine coolers and were a mainstay of my young adult life.

Yet another variation is to use the leftover blend to make sangria, which, as my friend Martin asserts, is Spanish for headache. If you drink it out in the sun, Ill agree you could get a hammering head, but sipped in moderation at the restful end of a hard day, sangria can be a refreshing new taste. There are as many different recipes for sangria as there are for potato salad, but I like this one: dice a whole orange, lemon and apple and place, juice and all, in a large pitcher, add up to a quarter cup of granulated white sugar, and two to three bottles of red wine blend. Stir until sugar is dissolved and refrigerate until cold.

This is a pure case of waste not, want not. Just because wine is left over, doesnt mean it should be left out.

Paul Kreider, who made his first wine in 1975, is the owner and winemaker of the Ross Valley Winery in San Anselmo, California. Since 1987, with notable success, his small Marin County bonded winery has specialized in transforming modest lots of unique grapes into vineyard-designated wines, each with its own individual character and particular personality. Check our website at www.rossvalleywinery.com.

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