How Long Does Prosecco Last? Opened and Unopened

Opened Prosecco lasts one to three days in the fridge with a proper sparkling wine stopper. Unopened, it’s a wine made to drink young: the Prosecco DOC consortium says the year after the harvest is the best time to drink it, and Chowhound gives about one to two years on the shelf if it’s stored correctly. Old Prosecco generally isn’t dangerous, just flat and dull. Here is each case, how to store a bottle and how to tell when one is past it.

How long Prosecco lasts at a glance

Situation	How long	Source
Opened, in the fridge with a sparkling stopper	1 to 3 days	Wine Folly
Opened, any method	Flat after “a day or two”	Wine Spectator’s Dr. Vinny (sparkling wine in general)
Unopened, best drinking	The year after the harvest	Prosecco DOC and Conegliano Valdobbiadene consortia
Unopened, stored correctly	About 1 to 2 years	Chowhound
Unopened, in a regular fridge	A month or two, as one writer’s habit	Dr. Vinny (Champagne)

These windows are about quality rather than safety.

Opened Prosecco

Once the cork is out, the carbon dioxide that makes the bubbles starts to escape. Wine Folly gives sparkling wine one to three days in the fridge with a sparkling wine stopper, the same window our guide to how long wine lasts after opening uses. It adds that traditional-method wines such as Champagne and Cava last a little longer than a tank-method wine like Prosecco, because they’re bottled with more pressure.

Wine Spectator’s Dr. Vinny, writing about bubbly generally, says it goes flat a day or two after opening whatever you use. So we’d plan on finishing an open bottle of Prosecco the next day and treat day three as a bonus.

How to keep the bubbles

• Use a sparkling wine stopper. Dr. Vinny likes hinged bubble stoppers, and he warns that the pressure can push out an ordinary cork. The Comité Champagne, the Champagne region’s trade body, also recommends a stopper made for sparkling wine.
• Keep it cold. Dr. Vinny explains that cold liquid holds carbon dioxide better, so a well-chilled bottle stays fresher and fizzier.
• Don’t count on a spoon. The Comité Champagne says the spoon-in-the-neck trick doesn’t work. Dr. Vinny is a little kinder and says it can do in a pinch. Either way, in our view the fridge does the real work.

Unopened Prosecco

Prosecco is built for freshness. Our guide to Prosecco explains that its bubbles usually come from a pressurized tank, which keeps the Glera grape’s floral and fruit aromas at the front rather than adding the bready flavors of long aging on yeast.

The two main consortia say much the same thing about timing:

• Prosecco DOC: the consortium says the year after the harvest is the best time to drink it.
• Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG: its consortium says the wine’s qualities can be enjoyed to the full in the year following the harvest, and that over the years its aromas evolve from fruity and floral notes to more mature, vinous ones.

Chowhound’s general estimate is longer: about one to two years on the shelf if stored correctly. It adds that a bottle left unopened for around three years may be safe to drink but isn’t going to taste good. We read these as compatible. The consortia are describing when the wine is at its best, and Chowhound how long a bottle stays pleasant.

How to tell how old a bottle is

Most Prosecco is non-vintage, with no harvest year on the label, so you often can’t date a bottle exactly. Rive wines from Conegliano Valdobbiadene always show the vintage, and so does Prosecco DOC Rosé, which must say Millesimato plus the year. For a non-vintage bottle, we’d buy from a store that sells plenty of it, and buy close to when you’ll drink it. In our view, there’s no reason to cellar an everyday bottle, and our best Prosecco under $20 list is a good place to look when you’re ready to open one.

How to store Prosecco

The Prosecco DOC consortium says bottles should be kept in a cool, dry place, away from light and sources of heat. The Conegliano Valdobbiadene consortium gives the same advice. For numbers, the DOC consortium’s technical sheet lists:

Temperature	Celsius	Fahrenheit
Storage (maximum)	8 to 12°C	46 to 53°F
Serving	6 to 8°C	42 to 46°F

Few of us have a cupboard that cold. In our view, the coolest dark spot you have is fine for a few weeks, and the fridge is fine for a bottle you’ll open soon. Dr. Vinny says a fridge isn’t the best place for long-term storage because it’s dry, which can dry out a cork and lead to premature aging. He mentions keeping a bottle or two in his own fridge, where they rarely last more than a month or two because he drinks them. That advice is about Champagne and sparkling wine in general, and we’d apply the same caution to a corked Prosecco. Chowhound, for its part, suggests the fridge if you don’t have a wine fridge.

Important: Sparkling wine bottles are under pressure. The Comité Champagne’s advice is to take off the foil and wire cage, keep a firm grip on the cork, never point the bottle at anyone, and turn the bottle gently rather than the cork.

Signs Prosecco is past it

• Few or no bubbles. Chowhound says Prosecco gets flatter and loses its fizz over time.
• Dull or tired flavors. Wine Folly says oxidation, the reaction with air, can bring a nutty, bruised-fruit taste and dull a wine’s fresh fruit.
• A sharp, vinegary smell. Wine Folly links this to acetic acid bacteria.
• More mature, vinous aromas. This is the change the Conegliano Valdobbiadene consortium describes. It isn’t a fault, but it’s not the fresh style most people buy Prosecco for.

Wine Folly says spoiled wine is essentially vinegar and won’t harm you, though it won’t taste good. If it smells of vinegar, pour it away, and if anything looks wrong beyond normal aging, don’t drink it. If you have health concerns, ask your doctor.

What to do with leftover Prosecco

If yesterday’s bottle has lost its sparkle but still smells fresh, it doesn’t have to go down the drain. Chowhound suggests adding orange juice to flat Prosecco and using it in a mimosa, though a flat wine won’t give the drink much fizz. We’d only use a bottle that still smells clean.

If you often leave bottles unfinished, a smaller format can help. Our chart of wine bottle sizes lists the 187 ml split and 375 ml half bottle, which are easier to finish in one evening. For more on storage and serving, browse Wine Basics.

Wine is for adults of legal drinking age (21 in the US). Please drink responsibly.