Ever heard someone advising you to keep open champagne overnight in the fridge with something metallic inside the bottle (like a knife), instead for an actual cork, claiming it would keep it vibrant? Forget it and forget listening to more wine advise from whoever told you that.
There are a lot of mechanisms and devices that allow a proper preservation of an open bottle, preventing oxidation – silverware isn’t one of them.
The ideal will be to have some kind of vacuum system. Simple systems consist of a manual pump to extract the air and a set of specific corks. A (much) more expensive solution will be using a refrigerated cellar with an air extraction system – these are more indicated for wine bars and pros.
Regardless of how sophisticated the solution might be, the fact is that wine was meant to age in the bottle – just until someone opens it. From that moment on, it’s downhill – especially if we’re talking about sparkling, or less structured wines.
So, if you’re cracking a bottle, invite some more friends to make sure you drink the whole bottle, or get a vacuum system and save it for later.
