Check if this sounds familiar: You open a nice bottle of spicy Zinfandel. Two glasses later, you’re ready to move onto something else. After corkbinning the label, you utilize the latest vacuvin you got for an early Christmas present and stick the bottle on your counter. Feeling like a pro, you move onto that Napa Cab you’d been saving. But wait… is this really the best way to store uncorked wine?

According to a recent post from our friends at Hello Vino, the countertop is not the place to store wine you have already opened and recorked. You are far better off putting it in the fridge. Surprised? It’s true. The flavor of the wine is best preserved that way.

If you think about it, this makes sense. There are so many ways that the countertop can disrupt the flavor. The temperature is far from stable, and the light will continually shift. And yes, this recommendation goes for red wine as well as whites. In fact, wine writer Frank Sinkwich says a properly stored uncorked wine can last as long as five weeks. Whoa!

You might want to check out Food & Wine’s list of 10 Uncorked Wines That Won’t Fade. One final note — if you’re refrigerating red wine, you’ll have to remember to take it out of the fridge well in advance of serving it. This seems obvious, but it sure is easy to forget. For now, happy drinking.

We wine lovers spend a lot of time talking about what’s in our glass. So much so that we often forget that wine first must be poured to be enjoyed. There’s nothing wrong with keeping your wine in the bottle, but for those who want to take things to the next level, decanting is the way to go.

This time honored technique allows you to enjoy the beauty of the wine — taking in its color as seen through clear glass. The increased surface area means your wine will get a nice fresh breath of air before you gulp it down. Decanting often removes sediment that may be lurking in the bottle. Some even say that the process of pouring from bottle to vessel can remove flaws, such as those nasty smelling mercaptans. All but the most fragile wines can be decanted to good effect, including many whites.

Here are a few strange and wondrous decanters we’ve found.

This branchlike design is by French Artist Etienne Meneau. Several in this series are currently on display at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art as part of the How Wine Became Modern exhibition.

This one makes us think of another type of intoxicating activity. Or perhaps an undersea voyage. (From Random Good Stuff blog.)

This is a combination wine decanter and funnel. Who knows how well this thing works, but it sure is an attention grabber.

This inverted decanter is not only stylish, but it has a built in filter and pours directly into the glass.