8 Household Hacks For Your Leftover Wine
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Is it a very rare occasion that we somehow end up with leftover wine, but it happens. Maybe we downed three-quarters of a bottle with our girlfriends and neglected the rest, or purchased a new brand we didn’t love and now don’t feel like finishing it. Whatever the reason, don’t waste your wine. Put those grapes to good use with these handy vino hacks.
1. Marinate Your Meat
Wine marinades will give you yet another reason to be a wino. A marinade is just a combination of acid, oil, herbs and spices, and your wine can act as the acidic component in this case. Make sure you think about all of the flavors you’re using before you pick a wine. For red meat, a full-bodied red wine like a Cabernet Sauvignon or a Zinfandel would work well. Use a lighter wine to marinate chicken like a Pinot Noir. Highly acid wines like Champagne or zesty white wines can help to tenderize the meat.
2. Wine Ice Cubes
You can actually freeze wine when you have leftovers. Wine freezes at a lower temperature than water because of its alcohol content, but it’ll still freeze in most home freezers. Just pour your leftover wine into an ice cube tray and then transfer the cubes to a freezer bag once they’re frozen. Even if you had enough of your wine, you might crave it again in a few weeks and your cubes will be right there waiting for you. We suggest using them in your sangria — they’ll melt right into your drink without watering it down.
3. Spray Fruits And Vegetables
If you’re spending money on a good bottle of wine, you’re probably not going to waste it on cleaning your fruits and vegetables. But if you have a slightly old cooking wine, use it to rinse your produce. According to a 2010 study, there are several antimicrobial properties in wine that can help to clean your fruits and vegetables. If you put the extra wine in a spray bottle and rinse off some apples or grapes, you’ll end up killing a lot of their surface bacteria that water can’t tackle.
You can also use the spray bottle of wine as a natural countertop cleaner if you run out of cleaning products or you don’t like to use chemical-based products.
4. Pasta Sauce
If it’s pasta night and you’re either doctoring up a good jarred sauce or making your own from scratch, you could add that little bit of leftover red wine to the pot. After you sauté the garlic, onions and herbs, and before you add in the tomatoes, pour in a little red wine to help neutralize the acidity created by all of the tomatoes. You’ll get a sweet flavor from the wine while the alcohol dissipates in the cooking process.
5. Face Mask
Red wine is packed with antioxidants and resveratrol, a plant compound that acts as an antioxidant, so why not use your wine as a DIY face mask? Maybe try this home recipe from SELF with red wine, a green tea bag, plain yogurt and organic raw honey. You just spread the mask over your face and relax for 15 minutes. However, if you’re buying $7 wine, you might want to just dump it out and not take a chance with putting super cheap wine on your face.
6. Tie Dye
Before we had fake dyes, berries were a natural way we dyed our clothes. If you have a little extra wine and you have a piece of white clothing that’s boring you, use your wine to give it a rich, rosy color. The longer you soak your clothes, the darker the color will be.
7. Neutralize Red Wine Stains
At one point or another, you’ve probably spilled red wine on yourself. Maybe you were trying too hard to multitask or you got excited while you were watching a movie and spilled it everywhere. This is when a little leftover white wine can come in handy. White wine can help to neutralize red wine stains, and it’ll make the stain easier to lift off of your clothing. You just need to blot the white wine on the stain with a towel. You can also use club soda or salt to help with the stain.
8. Wine Syrup
Why not make an extra topping for your pancakes, ice cream, salad, yogurt or vegetables? Combine a little red wine with sugar in a saucepan, bring it to a boil, and then reduce the heat and simmer it until it becomes syrupy. You can add any spices you want while it’s simmering. We recommend using a 3:1 wine-to-sugar ratio.
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