How long do different wines keep after you open them?

Never waste precious wine again

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Even the biggest wine-lovers amongst us occasionally find ourselves with an unfinished bottle.

Whether white, red, sparkling, rosé or even orange if you’re really trendy, it can be tricky to know what to do with your leftover vino and how long you can keep an open bottle for before pouring it away.

But it turns out the majority of people are throwing wine away on a much more regular basis than they need to.

Once opened, white wines and rosés can be kept for up to a week and fortified wines will last for up to 28 days.

Prosecco and cava should be consumed within three days, but champagne and English sparkling wines have slightly longer lives.

New research by Laithwaite’s Wine reveals that the average British household throws away two glasses of wine every week.

And nationally that adds up to 624 million bottles over a year, which is enough to fill 333 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

The reason most people throw away wine is that they don’t know how long a bottle can be kept for and are afraid it will have turned bad.

People also admitted to throwing wine away because they forgot about it or accidentally opened another bottle at the same time.

“Many of us open wine during the week and are unsure if it’s still good to drink a day or two later and instead pour it away,” said David Thatcher, CEO of Laithwaite’s Wine.

“All this adds up to a sad end for a great deal of perfectly enjoyable wine,” he added.

The study found that the heaviest wine-drinkers in the UK are Londoners, who crack open 2.1 bottles a week on average.

However, wine-drinkers in the capital are also the most wasteful, pouring away five glasses at the end of every social event.

To ensure your wine lasts, you should make sure to store it upright - this minimises the surface area exposed to oxygen, which can spoil the wine faster.