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

This is a question that I have always answered but have never written about.  Read on to know the answer.  Specifically, I will discuss the two main methods of wine preservation (the vacuum pump method and the inert gas method) and the method I personally use to preserve wines.

The Two Methods of Wine Preservation

Have you ever succeeded in drinking an entire bottle of an older Sauterne in one sitting?  Good for you, if you have.  I myself haven’t been able to do that yet.  As this is wine that I don’t drink all that often, I naturally want to preserve whatever’s left in the bottle.  Like me, you also probably need a way to preserve wine you can’t drink in one sitting.  Otherwise, you’ll be wasting a lot of wines.  The alternative – drinking and enjoying wine only when you have company – is not something true wine lovers would ever consider.

There are several wine accessories out there that can help you preserve an open wine bottle.  The wine accessories or wine-saving products from Vacu Vin are probably the most commonly used.  To use the vacuum wine saver, place the vacuum wine stopper in the opening of the wine bottle.  This will pump out the air and create a vacuum inside the wine bottle, thereby halting the oxidation process or reducing the rate of oxidation.

There are also inert gas wine preservers.  In this case, inert gas is pumped into the open wine bottle.  The inert gas is heavier than air, so it successfully replaces the air inside the bottle and “blankets” the wine.  After pumping the inert gas into the bottle, put the wine cork back on and you will be all set.

The Best Wine Preserver

I know that some of you are thinking, “I do not wish to purchase an expensive wine accessory just to preserve my wines.”  Well then, I have great news for you.  Using inert gas is probably the cheapest method of preserving wine.

You do not need to buy a refrigerated inert gas dispenser!  There’s a much simpler and inexpensive alternative.  For only $9.95, you can buy a can of Private Preserve – “the original inert gas preserver” – and get up to 120 uses per bottle.  You can use this inert gas wine preserver not only to preserve wines but also to preserve ports, whiskeys, olive oil, and any other bottled product.  This inert gas wine preserver is what I personally use because, in my opinion, it works better than the vacuum pump and has no harmful consequences.

I believe that the vacuum pump method preserves wine only temporarily.  Sucking air out of an open bottle of wine and creating a vacuum seal should be good only for a day or two; the air will eventually make its way back in.  In contrast, Private Preserve lets me preserve wine for a long period of time.  Some of my bottles have been open for months, but I have been able to successfully preserve them with inert gas.

[One word of advice:  Make sure that the wine cork you use does not breathe.  If you put your cork screw all the way thru the cork when you opened the wine bottle, you shouldn’t use that same wine cork to reseal your wine bottle.  If you do, air would seep back in.  Do keep that in mind the next time you open a wine bottle.]

The use of the vacuum pump method may also have an unintended and undesirable effect; it is generally believed that repetitively sucking the air out of the same wine bottle will eventually suck out the bouquet and aromas of the wine in that bottle.  There are no such issues if you use the inert gas wine preserver.

Finally, preserving wines through the vacuum pump method can be expensive in the long run; the vacuum wine stopper needs to be replaced at least once a year if it is to work at maximum efficiency.  On the other hand (and as already mentioned above), Private Preserve costs below 10 bucks and can be used a total of 120 times.

Private Preserve is truly the inexpensive, practical and effective way of preserving open bottles of wine – and only a tête de mule wouldn’t give Private Preserve a try!

Cheers!

Why Do You Need an Aroma Faults Kit?

It is said that approximately 8% of all wines are faulty, yet less than 1% is returned at the point of purchase. There are two main reasons for this. First, there are those who drink faulty wine without noticing the fault or without being able to pinpoint the particular fault. Second, there are those who drink faulty wine, notice the fault, but do not bother returning the wine bottle.

The wine faults kit will teach you how to recognize faulty wine aromas. With practice, you will be able to determine whether or not a certain wine has a faulty aroma. You will also be able to recognize the particular type of faulty aroma present. You can therefore demand a replacement every time you are served faulty wine; thus, you’ll never have to drink faulty wine again.

The Wine Faults Kit

The wine faults kit is used the world over by winemakers, sommeliers, wine lovers, and some of the best wine schools like UC Davis that offer a wine education program. The 12-Aroma Wine Faults Kit, in particular, will teach you the 12 most commonly found faulty scents in wines. It also comes with a booklet that explains how these faulty aromas occur and how you can avoid or rectify them.

I must warn you; the faults kit does not smell good. It has the scents of vegetal, rotten apple, vinegar, glue, soap, sulfur, rotten egg, onion, cauliflower, horse, moldy-earth, and cork. Indeed; a faults kit session will never be mistaken for aromatherapy.

I highly recommend the faults kit to anyone who loves wines. It is definitely a worthy investment. The next time you are in a restaurant and detect a faulty aroma in your wine, you can call up the waiter or sommelier – should they have one – and you will be able to explain your concern in great and specific detail. This way, you can get a new, fault-free bottle of wine.

Important faulty wine tip: Should you detect the vegetal fault in your wine, change your wine order altogether. The vegetal fault occurs at harvest and, most likely, the entire batch of that vintage from that particular winemaker will be faulty.

Cheers!

When I first became interested in wines, my father played his part and bought me my first wine book. I will not name the author as I am not in the business of offending people. Suffice it to say that when I got to the author’s claim that the type of wine glass (whether it be glass, pewter, plastic, crystal, tin cup, etc.) does not make much of a difference and should not prevent one from drinking wine, I instinctively knew I was reading a false statement.

Wine Glasses Make a Difference

In the mid-nineties, I was invited to a wine tasting featuring Chateau Yquem’s wines. We were told that there were to be four vintages at this tasting. We were given four glasses, one for each vintage. After sampling the wines, we started to discuss the various aromas that we could smell, the differences in texture (very slight but noticeable) that we could detect, and the characteristics of the four wines.

After a while, however, the host made a shocking announcement. All four wines were actually of the same vintage! I could hear the guests gasping, arguing and claiming that it could not be possible. None of us had any idea that we were drinking four glasses of the same wine. What made it more embarrassing was the fact that we were no amateurs to be so thoroughly deceived.

“How can this be?” one of the professional wine tasters asked. The host replied, “It is all about the wine glass and how wine evolves in each differently!”

The wine glass does matter. Wines react when exposed to air, and the bouquet, body and structure of wines react differently depending on the type and shape of the wine glass used.

The Shape of the Wine Glass Matters

Why does the shape of a wine glass – specifically its opening, rim and body – make such a big difference?

A larger opening means greater exposure to air, allowing the wine to breathe and facilitating the change not only to the wine’s bouquet but also to the wine’s structure. The rim, on the other hand, acts like a vent, releasing or trapping the wine’s bouquet within the glass.

When you sip wine from a glass with a wide opening, further aeration of the wine happens. Thus, wine aromas previously not noticeable are revealed and further changes in the wine’s structure also take place. These changes will become detectable both in the mouth (on the tongue, to be more precise) and, once again, in the nose. This is the retro-olfactory process or, in layman’s terms, the process by which wine aromas develop or break open after the wine comes in contact with the saliva; some aromas need liquid to become volatile.

The entire process is actually quite complex and would take a few pages to explain. I will discuss this in greater detail in my first podcast (video) presentation, so watch out for it.

Conclusion

I don’t expect you to go out and buy a set of wine glasses for each type of wine that exists. However, I do recommend that you buy wine glasses that are specifically designed for the wines you enjoy or love the most. It is definitely worth it and, more importantly, you and your wine deserve it!

So remember: if you are going to drink wine, drink it in a stem glass – preferably one made of crystal. If you have the option, use one that is best fitted.

No, you don’t have to take my advice if you are the type to drink 2buckchuck. In that case, I don’t think the wine glass will make much of a difference, and I really don’t know why you’re reading my wine blog.

Cheers!

Red Wines and White Wines

In general, you don’t drink red wines and white wines using the same wine glass.  Therefore, if you are drinking both, use a different wine glass for each wine type.

Same Wine or Same Varietal

You can stick with the same glass if you are drinking the same wine (different bottle) or two different wines of the same varietal. However, I do recommend that you start with the lighter-bodied wine before proceeding to the heavier-bodied wine.  If you reverse this order, the heavy-bodied wine will leave residues that may affect your enjoyment of the lighter-bodied wine.

Wine Tasting

If you are evaluating a wine, you should always use a clean wine glass.  As a professional wine taster, I always use a clean glass when evaluating wines.  I do this even when tasting two red wines one after another.  I apply the same rule when tasting all other wine types.

I have a good reason for doing this.  Wines leave their aromas in a wine glass; even after all the wine is gone, the aromas remain.

At wine tastings, I change my wine glass as often as possible.  In most wine tastings, however, you will be given only one wine glass and you will have to make do with it.  When changing glasses is just not possible, I rinse my glass with bottled water whenever necessary.  The fuller the wines’ body, the more often I rinse my glass.

When You Don’t Change Your Wine Glass

Last month, I attended a wine tasting in Europe and I encountered a first.  I was poured a new wine into a glass I had already been using.  When I sniffed the new wine, it smelled faulty.  I could detect the distinct smell of onion!  It’s not really a scent you get too often, and it’s not one you’re bound to miss.  Interestingly, I was the only one who could smell it.  So I passed my glass to the others; they confirmed my judgment and we started investigating.

Do you know what we found out?  The smell of onion was the result of the reaction between the new wine and the wine I had been drinking previously.  The new wine would have never developed the faulty aroma if I were using a fresh wine glass.

Until that experience, I had never truly experienced first-hand how wine could be tainted by residues left in a glass.  In fact, none of us at that wine tasting event ever had.  It really brought home the fact that, if at all possible, one should change wine glasses when drinking a different wine.

Changing wine glasses is especially important if you are a wine aficionado or are drinking premium wines that you don’t really want to taint with another wine’s aroma.  If it’s all the same to you then, by all means, you can drink different wines using the same glass.

Cheers!