Wine is a precious gift from our beloved planet earth. Awareness on environmental issues is constantly growing, and therefore these themes are always more discussed, and rightfully so. We often hear about food and water waste, but what about wine? 

There’s a series of actions that you can start taking immediately to tackle this issue as well!

 

Once a bottle is opened, there’s nothing we can really do to prevent wine from slowly going bad. Corks of any shape and color or spoons inserted in the neck of the bottle are ineffective.

The oxidation process will continue inexorably and after only a couple of days in the refrigerator, your leftover wine will become almost undrinkable. But are you sure there's no way to reuse that wine in any other way than pouring it down the sink?

 

Here at Carpineto, we care deeply about sustainability and respecting our beloved nature, so we prepared five tips we have chosen for you! You can easily reduce the amount of wine you will waste, and which other occasion is better than the International Day of Food Loss and Waste to do so?

First and foremost, we can obviously use wine in our kitchen. Frozen (or not) wine can be used in a variety of delicious ways, such as savory sauces and other wine-based dishes. Frozen wine is also a great base for sangria or frosé if we like to sip cold, fruity drinks during the warmer months. Remember always to use the bottles you already have opened and that would be otherwise wasted!

 

Red wine, thanks to the mineral salts it contains, makes the earth more fertile. This is especially true for wines that have already gone a bit bad. To have beautiful lush plants, fill your watering can with water and add a glass of leftover wine, mix and give your plants their shot glass to drink. A small percentage of wine won’t harm the plant at all and it will actually carry a lot of benefits!

 

With a little bit of care, after a couple of weeks, wine can turn into vinegar to use in the kitchen. If you don’t trust this process, you can always use wine to disinfect your fruits and vegetables. If you have some leftover wine, instead of simply throwing it down the drain, use it to wash fruit and vegetables from the supermarket. The alcohol it contains will help eliminate at least some of the bacteria on their surface.

 

We all know about wine stains, but do you know that you can use wine also to clean? It may seem strange, yet white wine can act as a stain remover against the traces left on fabrics by red wine. But, added to the mop water, it can also be useful for eliminating the grease marks left on the floor. 

 

If you know that you won't be able to use it in the days just following, a creative idea is to freeze the wine in ice molds: it can be used in the kitchen if necessary, but also to cool cocktails and other drinks. Iced wine may not be the best to drink, but it still makes a great ingredient! 

 

Last but not least, our first recommendation will always be to drink! Enjoying a nice glass of fine wine is one of the best pleasures in life, and this way you will never waste a single drop. But in case you can’t for any reason, we encourage you to be respectful towards our planet and always think of different ways to reduce your impact on the environment.