What Can I Do With Extra Wine From a Party?

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I have four half-drunk bottles of wine in my fridge from a party this past weekend. There’s red, white, and pink. What can I do with the wine before it goes bad? —Host With the Most

I want to start by saying this is not your fault. In fact, I think it’s a sign of your vitality as a host. I’d argue that having just one half-drunk bottle left (in theory, the goal) would mean you did not serve enough wine. No one ever wants to take the last of anything—last glass of wine, last slice of pie, last breadstick at Olive Garden. It’s human nature. When it comes to hosting, too much is just enough.

But we still have a problem.

You can buy gadgets to remove the air from the bottle and extend the wine’s shelf life—I have and love this low-fi vacuum pump. Storing it in the fridge, as you’re doing, also helps. This buys us days, though, not an eternity.

So I asked my colleague, our director of drinks and resident wine expert, Joseph Hernandez for his advice. Let’s break it down by type:

The red

Joseph opened my eyes to a kalimotxo, a Spanish cocktail of red wine plus Coca-Cola. The soda goes a long way in covering up any oxidation. You could also put the bottle toward our perennially popular Red Wine-Braised Short Ribs. (One reader writes: “Best short rib recipe I have ever made. The meat was so tender, did not need a knife.”) Make up for the missing wine quantity with water or stock or go rogue and blend a couple wines—more on this below.

Our summer issue’s guest editor, chef José Andrés, also magnanimously weighed in on the matter when he swung by the Bon Appétit office. His rec: reducing wine to drape over mashed potatoes, or for something sweet, channeling the same technique with apples. (The latter makes me think of this fun poached pear ice cream sundae.)

The white

Another fun cocktail rec from Joseph: white wine with Sprite or tonic water. It’s “well within reason for low-octane imbibing,” as he puts it. For food, may I point you toward one of my favorite dishes of all time? Linguine with clams never gets old. The ocean-y umami takes center stage, which means any so-so wine (you only need ⅓ cup) can dance in the background.

The rosé

Years ago, people on the internet took to adding jalapeño slices to cheap rosé to make it taste better. This could be you. What’s the worst that could happen? If that doesn’t resonate: I return, again, to the never-fail formula of seafood plus pasta. It’s summer! This shrimp scampi number calls for white, but rosé as a swap would be fun.

Now the elephant in the room

Can you mix them? The truth is you can do anything. Would I do so for drinking a glass? I would not. (Joseph, likewise, said: “I want the wine to taste like itself.”) But for a braise? Sure! I’m not convinced most people would be able to tell the difference after you’ve baked it with a honking cut of meat for hours. This braised chicken calls for orange wine, but a hodgepodge of white plus rosé would be fine, even great.

Readers, how do you use up surplus vino? Let me know in the comments.

Cheers,
Emma

Questions may be lightly edited for clarity, length, and style.