So we know that spirits such as whiskey and vodka will essentially never go bad, even once opened. From what I’ve read on Google, most wines even unopened are only good for maybe a couple years. And yet you can also buy bottles from like the 70s and even before that are apparently perfectly fine to drink so which is it, is wine like other alcohols that can be kept for years or even decades or is it something meant to be consumed within a fairly short amount of time?
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The alcohol content and acidity in wine limit microbial growth.
The reason wine goes bad after it’s opened is that now it has contact with oxygen. It’s the oxygen that make wine go bad. It doesn’t rot like other foods does, but gets oxidized and turns to vinegar.
Edit: just wanted to add that the factors that affect storage of wine the most are are are light, humidity, and temperature.
Direct sunlight, high temperatures and variable temperatures may cause or speed up chemical reactions that create foul smelling compounds. Furthermore, wines taste best when they’re aged slowly and they age more slowly at lower temperatures.
Humidity is mainly important because it prevents the cork from drying out, which would lead to oxygen getting into the bottle. It is debated whether it has other effects.
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