If you open a bottle of wine that doesn't smell or taste its best at home and can't face putting on a mask and lining up to do a return at the store, try these suggestions instead of dumping your disappointment down the drain.
The wine smells like musty wet cardboard: stuff a ball of plastic kitchen wrap in the open bottle top. Wait about 10 minutes for the "corked" smell to disappear.
It smells sulfurous, like rotten egg: drop a clean copper penny into the bottle, or stir the wine with a sterling silver utensil.
Keep bubbly bubbling: Uncork, pour, then put in a stopper and chill the rest right away. Sparkling wines keep their bubbles longer when kept cold in the fridge.
Leftover White Wine: If it tastes like it's been in the fridge too long, add some Creme de Cassis (a blackcurrant liqueur I have never tried) to make Kir, a drink popular in Paris.
Leftover Red Wine: make Sangria. Add an equal part of sparkling wine or soda water, splashes of Triple Sec and brandy, some ice.
