We have all been there. Putting aside unfinished wine and then forgetting about it. While there is nothing wrong with drinking leftover wine apart from the unpleasant taste due to oxidation, there are actually other interesting ways to use up leftover wine.

A little wine does wonders to cooking, so you can freeze leftover wine into ice cubes for future culinary use. When you find yourself making sauces or soups and in need of a flavor boost, out come these tiny frozen wine cubes to be stirred into the pan.

If you have love making desserts, then you will be pleased to know that you can poach fruits or make sorbet with leftover wine. In fact, if there is a bottle of wine that you do not like that much, use it for making dessert. For poaching, while pears immediately come to mind, autumn usually brings with it a bounty of other fruits which taste fabulous when poached. You can consider quinces, apples, prunes and even berries!

While you might not be able to turn water into wine, you can turn wine into vinegar without much hassle. You will need mother of vinegar and you can get it from a good quality store-bought vinegar. Go for organic if you can. The cloudy substance at the bottom of the jar of vinegar is the mother, which helps to kickstart the fermentation process, converting alcohol into vinegar. Simply mix leftover wine with the mother of vinegar, store at room temperature and give the mixture a stir once a day. After approximately a week, you can start using the vinegar, although for better flavor, you can wait longer till the vinegar develops in taste.

If the creation of vinegar sounds too time-consuming, why not make a simple wine vinaigrette? Combine leftover wine with olive oil and lemon juice, season to taste with salt, pepper and some honey, you will have a fresh vinaigrette to use on salads or seafood.

With these helpful tips in mind, the next time you have a bottle of unfinished wine, remember to save it up for other culinary uses!