After the party · open bottles, full cases
What to do with leftover wine after an event?
Open bottles keep for about three days, stoppered and cool; champagne, one day with an airtight stopper. Unopened bottles keep for years if they are stored well. And one thing to know before you order: Transvins does not take back unopened cases. This page tells you how to keep what is left, and above all how to have little left.
How long it keeps
Rules of thumb, not use-by dates: an open wine does not become dangerous, it goes flat and oxidises. Taste before serving. The times assume a bottle re-stoppered the same evening and put in the fridge.
| Wine | Open | Unopened | How |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red | About 3 days | Years for a Bordeaux for laying down, 2 to 5 years for a simple wine | Re-stoppered, in the fridge, taken out half an hour before drinking. The less wine left in the bottle, the faster it oxidises. |
| Dry white, rosé | About 3 days, with a stopper | 1 to 3 years for most; longer for a great white for laying down | In the fridge, bottle upright, original cork or a wine stopper. |
| Champagne | 1 day, with a champagne stopper | A few years, lying down, away from light | Without an airtight stopper, the bubbles are gone by the next day. The teaspoon in the neck does nothing. |
| Sauternes | 1 to 2 weeks | Decades | The sugar protects it: it is the open wine that keeps best. |
| Opened bag-in-box | Several weeks | A few months | The bag shrinks, no air gets in. That does not mean it keeps for years. |
“Stored well”, for unopened bottles, means: lying down, in the dark, cool and at a stable temperature, around 12 to 15 °C. A cellar, a storeroom, a cupboard against a north wall. Not the garage that reaches 35 °C in August, nor the top of the fridge. The page building a wine cellar explains how to store a few cases for years.
What we don't do: take cases back
- Unopened cases are not taken back. Not after the wedding, not after the seminar. What you order, you keep.
- That is why our calculations are tight. The quantity calculator adds a margin of 8% for a standing event, 10% for a seated meal, and no more. One extra bottle per ten always gets drunk; one case too many stays in the garage.
- If returns matter to you, others offer them. Some local wine shops take back unopened cases. The page wine merchant, wine shop, supermarket or producer compares the four routes, returns included.
Ordering so little is left
Count the drinkers, not the guests. Children, drivers, pregnant women, people who don't drink: out of a hundred guests, there are often twenty or thirty. The calculator asks for this share; don't leave it at 100% on principle.
Choose wines that keep. If you are unsure about one more case, take it in a red for laying down that you will enjoy drinking in three years, not in this year's rosé. What is left becomes a cellar, not a problem.
Keep the sparkling tight. Open champagne does not last the night. One flute per person for the toast, one bottle for six or seven flutes: this is the wine not to overestimate.
Open as you go. Ask the caterer or the bar to open only on demand, especially late in the evening. Ten bottles uncorked in advance and never served are ten bottles to drink within three days.
Leftovers as gifts
To guests. An unopened bottle slipped into the bag of the witnesses, the parents, the people who helped set up the hall: it is a thank-you, and one bottle fewer to put away. With a label bearing the day's date, it becomes a keepsake.
To the team. The waiting staff, the caterer, the DJ, the club volunteers: leaving them the unopened bottles that remain is common practice, and always appreciated. Agree on it beforehand, so nobody helps themselves from the cases during service.
For later. The day after a wedding there is often a lunch with the family: that is where the bottles opened the night before, and the started cases, end up. The page day-after brunch does that count.
Does Transvins take back unopened bottles?
No. Unopened cases are not taken back, whatever the occasion. It says so on every page, and it is why our quantity calculations keep a short safety margin.
Is a wine opened four days ago still good?
Drinkable, safe, but often tired: a red loses its fruit, a white goes flat. Taste it. If you no longer enjoy drinking it, it will do very well in the kitchen, in a sauce or a boeuf bourguignon.
Can champagne that got warm be chilled again?
An unopened bottle, yes, once; it then keeps lying down away from light. What damages it is repeated trips between warm and cold. An open bottle, on the other hand, should be drunk the next day at the latest.
Are bottles left for a week in a warm hall ruined?
Rarely, for a few days at 25 °C: the wine ages faster, it does not turn. Above 30 °C for days, or in the sun, the cork can push out and the wine can cook. Take the cases somewhere cool the very next day, and drink those first.