“What is the best way to preserve an open bottle of wine bottle”

This is a question I have often answered but never really written about.
In today’s market, there are several gadgets out there to help preserve an open wine bottle. The most common of all is probably Vacuvin’s products. Place their vacuum stopper on the bottle and pump out the air. A vacuum is created inside the bottle and therefore the oxidation process is “halted or reduced”.
There are also the inert gas versions, where you replace the air in the bottle with an inert gas. The gas being heavier than air, replaces the air in the bottle, “blanketing” the wine. Put the cork back on and you are set. I know some of you are thinking I do not wish to purchase an expensive machine to preserve my wines. Well I have news for you; inert gas is probably the cheapest way to preserve wine. You do not need to buy a refrigerated inert gas dispenser! For $9.95, you can buy a can of Private Preserve (“the original inert gas preserver”) and get up to 120 uses! You can not only use it for wines, but ports, whiskies, olive oils and any other products stored in a bottle. It is so convenient and inexpensive. This is what I personally use. I am a firm believer that sucking out the air from the wine by creating a vacuum seal is only good for a day or two. The air eventually makes it way back in. Furthermore, it is believed that vacuuming the air out of the bottle also sucks out the bouquet/aromas from the wine when used repetitively on the same bottle. Finally, the stoppers need to be replaced once a year to keep their efficiency. That is why I made the switch to the inert gas. Have you ever tried to drink a whole bottle of an older sauterne by yourself? Nor have I. And as it is a wine that I do not drink all that often, I like to preserve it.
Well how long may one preserve a wine which has already been opened? For a long period of time. Some of my bottles have been open for months and preserved with inert gas. Oh one word of advice, make sure the cork you use does not breathe. If you put your cork screw all the way thru the cork, you can be sure that air will seep in. So keep that in mind.
For under $10 buck, only a “tête de mule” would not give Private Preserve a try!

Cheers!

This entry was posted on 12. September 2008 at 21:18 and is filed under Tips & FAQs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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