After my last wine-tasting fest—where I opened three bottles on the same evening—I was left with three half-full bottles of wine. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but the next night I came down with a cold. I reached for one of the Zins anyway, but my wife quickly ran interference, putting a glass of orange juice in my hand instead. This made me worry that my delicious wines might go bad by the time I could enjoy them, so I contacted Kevin on the red phone at WAM’s headquarters.

“What’s the shelf-life for an opened bottle of red wine?” I asked.

“Heck, you can drink them three or four days later and they’ll be fine,” he said. “But if you’re worried about it, just cork them and stick ‘em in the fridge. Some red wines hold their flavor for over a week that way.”

My jaw dropped. “Red wine? In the refrigerator? Isn’t there a law against that in California? Don’t tell me you drink them cold…”

“Oh, no,” Kevin answered. “Just pull it out a few minutes before you want to drink it, pour it and let it warm up in the glass. It doesn’t take long.”

With that, I grabbed my Zins and stuck them on a shelf in the fridge next to the orange juice and chicken broth.  Five days later, when the cold was almost gone, I pulled them back out and tasted each. They were as good as the first day. Too bad I didn’t have anything left to test after a week!