I make wine as a hobby, so I know a bit about it.

Never use cooking wine, as the primary flavor you get from it is salt. Use
for cooking a wine you would like to drink.

If you're not going to drink it, my first recomendation is to open a 375 ml
or one of the smaller bottles of wine you can find about the size of a wine
cooler. If you must open a 750 ml bottle, or if there is some left in the
375 ml bottle, I suggest a wine vacumn system. Essentially, that's a rubber
gasket that fits in place of the cork and a hand-pump to remove air from the
bottle. They're not very expensive, and they work well.

Air is the arch-enemy of wine, as the introduction of it causes the wine to
oxidize. Whites usually oxidize more quickly than do reds, and refigerating
seems to slow down the oxidation process a bit. not much, but a little.
Using a vacumn system has allowed me to keep an open bottle of white wine
for more than a week with good results.


> wrote in message
oups.com...
> Hi,
>
> I don't drink alchohol and know next to nothing about it, but some
> recipes call for the addition of white or red wine, or sherry. I
> understand that grocery store "cooking wine" is to be avoided, but my
> question is this: doesn't wine go bad once it's opened? Do people who
> cook with wine sacrifice a whole bottle to get the recipe's 1/4 cup or
> 2 tablespoons? Or do they plan to drink the rest the same day? Wine
> lovers insist on a "three day rule" once the bottle has been opened . .
> I understand that cooking wine can keep for a year or so . . .
>
> Thanks!
>