298037 Wed Aug 04 15:48:22 -0700 2004 7 27 General Chowhounding Topics 0 1646668 Thanks. Wed Aug 04 15:48:22 -0700 2004 0 Aarkovsky 1 1646709 I've opened a bottle of Sake and kept it in my cool "wine cellar" (a small stone room in my basement - actually the meter room) for months and months and, to me, it seems just fine. Wed Aug 04 23:12:27 -0700 2004 1646668 0 Annie M 1 1646720 Depends on the sake, I suppose, but I'd put it at a couple of days -- closer to the length of time you could keep an open bottle of beer in the fridge. Sake will oxidize just as wine will, and its flavor and fragrance will suffer. John Gauntner, in "The Sake Handbook," allows that some kinds of sake might be fine a couple of weeks after being opened, but he doesn't recommend keeping it around that long. Thu Aug 05 01:17:48 -0700 2004 1646668 0 squid-kun 2 1647028 Absolutely. It actually starts to deteriorate once its put in the bottle in fact, so careful storage and quick consumption is needed to get the most out of good sake. But I guess for those who can't tell the difference between fresh and oxidized aromas and flavors or don't care, keeping it lying around for a couple years as BK suggested would work. (g) Sun Aug 08 17:05:10 -0700 2004 1646720 0 Melanie Wong 1 1647011 You're joking, right? It is common to see half-drunk bottles of sake (whiskey, too) kept "on reserve" in Japanese bars. I would say a bare minimum of one year; I bet some places have them there even longer. I have bottles of vodka that are like 18 years old. Never occured to me that they could be anything BUT normal. Sake should be the same. Not like it's some Irish Cream mix or anything. Sun Aug 08 12:44:05 -0700 2004 1646668 0 BK 2 1647012 Ah, but there is a difference. Sake is not a distilled liquor like vodka or scotch. It is a fermaneted beverage, more like beer. If you want to keep an opened bottle more than a couple of days, at least keep it in the refrigerator. Sun Aug 08 12:56:31 -0700 2004 1647011 0 AlanH™ 2 1647044 Maybe bottles of shochu (which is a distilled liqour) but not sake. It only has a few days before it oxidizes. Sun Aug 08 22:22:04 -0700 2004 1647011 0 The Rogue 3 1647059 Yup, I don't think I've ever seen sake (nihon-shu) on the reserve shelves behind those bars. It's usually whiskey or shochu. Mon Aug 09 09:47:02 -0700 2004 1647044 0 Eric Eto