It’s a classic: you pour yourself a glass of wine and leave the opened bottle on the counter overnight, or sometimes even for days, and wake up to an unpleasant smell coming out of the precious beverage. Rather than pouring it all down the drain, or adding it to your morning green smoothie (just don’t), try one of these useful(ish) ideas of things to do with spoiled wine:

Make your own homemade vinegar

This one is for all you patient people who are willing to wait a few months before using the final result. Plus, at that point, your point has more or less turned into vinegar already… So why not finish the process? When it comes to simple red wine vinegar, you’d be better off making your own – there aren’t plenty of good ones on the market. Get started with this quick tutorial by Dr. Vinny from Wine Spectator [Ask Dr. Vinny].

Marinate your meat

Throw your steak into wine that you wouldn’t simply drink, and let it absorb all the goodness for a few hours. The acidity and tannins will help soften the muscle fibers in the meat, tenderizing it!

Tie-Dye!

If you want to get creative, us your red wine is a dye – grab a white t-shirt, your leftover bad wine, and have a little bit of fun. At least these wine stains will be intentional, for once. Here’s [http://tinytipis.blogspot.com/2013/02/diy-tie-dye-with-red-wine.html] a little bit of inspiration for you.

Clean your wine stains

And for the accidental wine stain on your brand new cream carpet, we have a solution: more wine! That’s right – just pour some white wine over the red wine stain (make sure to act quickly, the stain has to be wet) and gently dab it up. It might not make the stain disappear completely, but it’ll at least make it a lot easier to deal with.

Use it when cooking

Don’t forget: only cook with a wine you’d drink. But when it comes to rich flavors and long-heat simmering (boiling, stewing, etc.), you can still give it a shot, as the bad wine reduces and meld with all these strong flavors you incorporated in your dish. For even more convenience (and fun!), pour the leftover wine in your ice cube tray, and use the frozen ice cubes when cooking!

Take a wine bath

We’re not telling you to fill your bathtub with wine entirely – if this is even an option for you, consider worrying about all this leftover wine. Just add a glass or two into your bath to add skin-softening antioxidants. We all know that the fountain of youth actually looks and tastes a lot like wine.

In the event that you accidentally purchase some bad wine (not leftovers, just the kind your taste buds don’t enjoy), or receive it as a gift, here’s what you should do:

First things first, don’t waste the wine – there are plenty of things to do to put those bottles to good use.

If your Riesling is overly sweet, just mix it to some mustard, to counterbalance the sweetness of the wine, and use it to braise a chicken.

For a super oaked Chardonnay, make it a punch! A colorful sangria with a Chard base is always a good idea.

And when it comes to a very tannic red, like a Cab Sauv, simply transform it into a vermouth. Simmer it with spices like cloves and cinnamon, and you have yourself a tasty cocktail!