Does red wine have a use by date?

[Hihosilver123]

I am clearing out a cupboard and have found four bottles of red wine dated 2016 and 2017. I don’t drink red wine and wondered if these will be off. Don’t want to take them to a party when I should be using them for cooking! They’re Malbec,

Wine doesn’t really go ‘off’. It reaches its best point at various different times depending on the wine, but it doesn’t go off as such. It won’t harm you.

Will it taste ok though? I thought it could be ‘corked’?

Open it up and try it?

If it was an expensive, quality bottle it might be delicious. If its not, just pour it down the sink. One sip and you'll know 😈

Depends on how they've been stored and how good the wine was to start with! Wines bottled in vineyard will have a better life than something which is 'product of Argentina ' or 'bottled in the UK for Sainsburys ' (other supermarkets are available!). If it is the latter just taste it - if it doesn't taste good then throw it away (you shouldn't cook with something you won't drink). A general rule for wine not kept in a temperature controlled environment is about 10 years from bottling.

Any wine can be ‘corked’ no matter when it was bottled.

How it tastes will depend on the wine. Some will age well and some won’t.

Wines from the dates you’ve mentioned - and many from long before that - can be bought in shops and ordered in restaurants now. The year on the bottle doesn’t mean it was bought in that year.

Wine gets better with age.

Send them to me - I'll check them for you in the interests of safety and let you know if they were ok.

Unless it's something like four bottles of Blossom Hill or Apothik red or similar, in which case they were poison when bottled and haven't improved with time.

It may depend on whether they’ve been stored standing up or on their sides. I think the reason wine racks are horizontal is to keep the cork moist; if it dries out air can get in and oxidise the wine.

Definitely don’t take them to a party. We often find old bottles languishing in the garage (I don’t drink red wine either so we don’t use much). The occasional one is drinkable but a lot end up down the sink. I suspect more expensive ones last better.

If they're screw top bottles they can't be corked. A fungus causes wine to be corked.

Corked means there is mold in the cork, and can happen at any point as PP says

Which is why the trend toward plastic corks or screw tops, reduces that risk.

Ive just finished up a bottle of red wine that was opened months and months ago. Ive been using it in cooking when I need winey/vingeary flavours. Lovely.

Good plan 😂

it seems a waste to open it to see if it’s ok as I won’t drink it. Perhaps I’ll wait until I have a red wine drinker in the house 🍷!

Thanks everyone.