As we go through our days, we are constantly on the look out for those items for household living that are just indispensable and make us happy whenever we use them.
The most recent one we noticed in our own home was the Vacu Vin Wine Saver...
We drink a great deal of wine, but we don't always finish the bottle. When you simply put the cork back in, it never tastes the same a day later, never mind a few days after that. However, when you put one of these stoppers in and suck out all the air oxidation nearly halts and you can preserve wine's best taste for a really long time (a week is no problem). The Vacu Vin Wine Saver is available in lots of places for $12.99.
While we thought it was a bit of a gimmick at first, we now use this thing on every bottle and end up with little grey stoppers all over our house. (Re-edited from 2005-10-21 original post, Maxwell)
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Comments (15)
Andrew resusing the cork doesn't deal with the air that is already in the bottle.
Screwcaps have been in use for awhile. Many winemakers are changing to screwcaps as they don't have to deal with cork going bad. It is not an automatic indication of inferior wine.
There is just the two of us, and we just have one glass a night with dinner. We've had one of these for a while and we love it. We usually finish the bottle within two days or so, and it seems to work really well. We love it.
Ha! I bought one of these this week and used it on Thanksgiving for the first time. I want to savor this bottle of Frogs Leap Zinfandel and I usually can't get the original cork back into any bottle.
I've used one for several years now and love it. In fact, I used it yesterday to save the wine leftover from my Thanksgiving dinner.
If you're going to finish the bottle the next day, you'll probably be able to get away with recorking it -- it sometimes helps to use the other end of the cork, btw -- but any longer something like this does help.
I must add that I'm sitting here enjoying the image of different sized bottles filled with red wine, each with its own vacuum seal and some sort of Vincent Price figure hovering over the process....
A wine snob told me that the difference between such devices and recapping the bottle with the original cork is negligible.
Paulmuscat: The wine snob was wrong. As Alexis pointed out, if you just stick the cork back in, the air that has been introduced into the wine bottle contributes to oxidation, ruining the wine after a day or so. With the Vacu Vin, the air is sucked OUT of the bottle, creating a vacuum (there's a "whoosh" when you pull out the rubber cork later to reopen the bottle). I'm one of those folks who likes half a glass of wine with dinner, and this device easily keeps an opened bottle good for a week ... I've been known to keep one around for two weeks, and it's still fine. (I'm talking white wine ... don't know how long red would keep, but I'm about to find out!) By the way, Cook's Illustrated rated all the wine-keeping devices not long ago, and the expensive ones couldn't hold a candle to Vacu Vin, which came out on top!
Paulmuscat, while it's true as Jane says a cork won't work, i once heard a noted wine expert advise just reusing a couple half bottles with screw tops for leftovers from bottles sealed with corks. As long as you own a funnel and drink up within a few days, you're fine and you don't have to spend $$ on anything fancier. Works for me.
This thing works véry well. We have one at home (only thing is that I don't drink... And my partner doesn't really drink wine anymore either, so I might give it away one day when I 'cure' the kitchen :).
It's true, it keeps an opened up bottle of wine in good condition for at least a week.
it is probably one of the best bangs for the buck out there. I think it costs less than 20 dollars, so we're not talking big ticket fancy pants wine techie item. It's easy, it's fast, no need to keep empty half bottles and funnels around, and you can reuse the corks indefinitely. All-around winner in my kitchen.
As to question about screwcaps, they are preferred by many winemakers because they guarantee a uniform wine free from random cork taint and oxidisation. Gotta love a good crisp NZ Marlborough.
love it. it keeps my wine way past it's prime.
We've been using this for years, and especially like the newly redesigned rubber cork (the one pictured here..). We also HIGHLY recommend getting a magnetized wine collar (about 35.00 US dollars). Absolutely astonishing how much better inexpensive wines (red and white) taste and a cinch to use.
In Dec 2006, Consumer Reports did a test of wine preservation systems (it's here: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/food/beverages/wine/wine-12-06/wine-preservation/1206_wine_storage.htm?resultPageIndex=1&resultIndex=4&searchTerm=wine). The conclusion? They all work about the same, and about as well as just putting the cork back. Still, I use the Vacu-Vin. Maybe because I'm a good American and believe in gadgets. Maybe because I bought an unopened one at a garage sale for $1.