Life of various beverages

[Avatar]

Is there a certain percentage of alcohol by volume when drinks cease to 'go off' once opened?
i.e. lagers, beers ciders etc go bad quickly almost overnight. Red wine might last a day or 2 in the bottles, but Port (19% or 20%) and the spirits(40%) easily last 2 years.
Even Baileys, with cream in it seems to last for months.
Is it the alcoholic volume or the ingredients of the drink that determine the life?
If it is ABV, what is the limiting value and why?

[ugly_bob]

alcohol is a preservative. So the higher the alcohol content, the longer things will last.

[Pebbilita]

Ah! right.... i've had a bottle of Bailey's languishing i the fridge since last christmas...... still tastes ok to me.....

[whowhatwhy]

Check this out...137 year old beer...still in great tasting condition...the high alcohol content preserved the beer apparently.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml =/news/2006/12/09/nbeer09.xml