Preferred wine preservation system

[T. Johnson]

Hello all. I can't find an earlier thread related to this subject (although I'm sure it's been discussed before). Anyhow, curious to know peoples preferred system for preserving an opened bottle (one that will be consumed slowly over 2-3 days)? I currently use a vacu-vin, but some of my more astute wine friends warn of the loss of aromatics from this method. I don't worry with regards to young wines, but wonder if vacu-vin might be harmful to older bottles? Thanks in advance for any helpful info.

[Rick Gregory]

I know folks who swear by vacu-vin, but I've never been confident that the seal really does that much more than recorking the bottle nor that the vacuum really alters the amount of oxygen that the wine comes in contact with. So... If I know I'm not finishing a bottle I'll open the bottle, decant half into a clean 375ml half bottle, cork that and put it in the fridge. Yes, I expose it to air decanting it, but virtually all of that air is displaced by the wine and it then goes in a cold environment where reactions will be pretty slow. This works well if I'm finished 1/2 of a bottle which I almost always do if it's a good wine. If iI don't finish even half of the bottle I simply recork the full bottle with whatever's left and refrigerate it. Not optimal, but it works fine for a day. Note that this whole approach pretty much assumes you'll be drinking a bottle over 2 or maybe 3 days. If you're drinking it over a full week... well... drink faster!

[Roberto Rogness]

The Vacu Vin requires that you believe two things: A) that it creates a significant vacuum. B) that if it did, the wine wouldn't boil away. Both are false.

[Richard Jennings]

I think the vacu vin does virtually nothing, so I haven't used it for years. For a number of years I used argon gas, as I had a supplier in L.A. who was able to refill my tank every year or so as needed, and that worked great, and would keep the wine intact indefinitely. In the last couple years, I've moved to just having different size bottles--175 ml, 350, 500--so I can use whichever I need and fill it to the top, eliminating excess oxygen from the bottle, with whatever amount of wine I have remaining. I seal it with a plastic cork that I think is probably a tighter seal than just reusing the old cork. This method seems to work fine for keeping wine for 1 to 3 days. I don't recommend it beyond that point.

[Roberto Rogness]

Our dear departed (as in passed away, miss you Steve) Porto and Spirits manager used to keep wines, porto and more sealed in Schweppes club soda bottles in a small refrigerator in his house for YEARS with minimal degradation. You have to make sure they are sterile, have food grade plastic liners and you fill them to the TOP.

[Rob Hansult]

Glad to see little support given to the ridiculous concept of the vacu-vin. The inert gasses don't work either because the wine has already taken up the oxygen. The topped 1/2 bottle in the fridge thing works pretty well in the way described & since the bottle has already been open a while & being poured, it really doesn't add very much air to the wine. Have to admit I don't usually have to worry about any of these alternatives 'cause the bottle ends up empty! Cheers! "[cheers.gif]"

[Peter Tryba]

The gas techniques function well if you commit to drinking a certain volume of wine before you open the bottle. Simply pour the quantity you're going to serve then immediately gas the remainder. If you pour a few rounds over time then decide to gas the rest, you're doing it incorrectly and can't blame the gas.

[Rob Hansult]

[quote="Peter Tryba"]The gas techniques function well if you commit to drinking a certain volume of wine before you open the bottle. Simply pour the quantity you're going to serve then immediately gas the remainder. If you pour a few rounds over time then decide to gas the rest, you're doing it incorrectly and can't blame the gas.

[T. Johnson]

Thanks for the cogent info guys. It's interesting to note that the preferred system (fill a smaller bottle completely) also is simpler. I've had my doubts about vacu-vin when I've opened a bottle and it's painfully obvious the stopper didn't fully seal. Will give your advice a try. Thanks again.

[L e o F r o k i c]

I love to freeze whatever I don't use and when I'm ready to drink it again I just put botle in luke warm water and after half hour is ready to drink.

[Peter Tryba]

Rob, I did misread your personal use of gas preservation systems. I'm not suggesting that the purveyors of the gas canisters give coherent instruction on the use of their products. I am describing the method of use that produces positive results. I do agree that vacu-vin sucks and freezing, or refrigerating at minimum, is the best technique available for wine preservation these days.

[mikeycook]

Personally, I have tried several preservation techniques but in my opinion none of them protect the wine from significant degradation. So, instead I don't use any techniques. I try to buy more half bottles and I avoid opening my nicer bottles unless we intend to finish them.

[Randy Sloan]

I've always had trouble figuring out how to have a bottle last until the second day. "[snort.gif]" But circumstances this past week had me opening several of our wines for a tasting that didn't happen. I Vacu-Vined the bottles with the idea that I would check in on them on Day 2 to see how they would fare and if they'd be usable for the next day's tasting. The next day, for giggles I opened fresh bottles as well. In one case, the vacu-vin stopper had an unnoticed small crack and wine leaked. That bottle had degraded. In the other cases, the bottles compared quite favorably with their recently opened counterparts, seeming to imitate significant decanter time. I've never been a huge believer in the Vacu-Vin before and don't think I will be a big user in the future, but they did work out for me this week. Better than nothing?

[Randy Bowman]

We sell "Private Preserve," a carbon dioxide, nitrogen gas and use it in our bar on "by the glass" bottles. It works real well on Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris, holding them for about a week. Chards and reds will hold up two or three days, but all taste like they have had three to four hours in a large decanter, tanins very soft. Carrie can accurately tell if a wine has been gassed, saying she can taste it. I can't "taste" anything and am only about 50% on picking gassed vs long decant.

[Peter Kleban]

I've been using sixpack San Pellegrino bottles (250ml, so exactly 1/3 a std wine bottle) or Perrier (330ml, a bit less than half). If you fill them exactly to the top, there is no oxygen problem except for what gets in during the pouring. (Incidentally, the openings are the same size as a wine bottle so pouring is easy--assuming you haven't drunk too much already "[wink.gif]" . You can seal them with the caps they came with, tho I prefer to use screwcaps from other wine bottles, since they are designed for wine--can't really say if this make a difference or not, tho. I put them in the fridge. This works fine for several days, even weeks (in the few cases I've tested), others claim they will hold for months. I tend to believe that, since no O2 gets in and the temp is low. If I don't have enough left for a whole bottle, I use vacuvin on it. My impression is that this doesn't work as well, but I can't say I've really tested it. Caveat: my wife thinks I'm crazy. But what else is new "[snort.gif]" ?

[Ron Kramer]

If the leftover will not be consumed the next day it gets frozen NEVER a problem but I use a cool water bath to have it come to temperature. If I'm having the next day it goes into glass vessel close to the volume left and then the wine is brought to the top with glass marbles.

[Linda Baehr]

[quote="P. Robert"]What is this half empty bottle thing of which you speak?

[Bob Wood]

[quote="P. Robert"]What is this half empty bottle thing of which you speak?

[PeterJ]

[quote="Rob Hansult"] The only problem is the vast number of buyers are using the gas to "save" the bottle after they've been drinking it for an hour or so, and in that case, it is virtually useless.

[Rob Hansult]

[quote="PeterJ"]I'm interested in what is is you'd say makes so many people believe that gassing after an hour DOES help wine last longer. I long ago concluded that, like so much else with wine, much of this has to do with palate sensitivity and experience, but it's a little hard to conclude that the wine would be exactly the same with or without gassing the way most people use it. It's too big a business for it to not work at all.................. or is that naive? What's the scientific evidence that enough air has been absorbed into the wine in an hour to make preservation useless?

[PeterJ]

[quote="Rob Hansult"] Peter, I'd say the evidence that so many people believe that gassing after an hour helps the wine last longer is seeing what & how people are using these inert gas products, which is gassing the wine that's left when they are finished & there is wine leftover. Have you been witnessing a different sort of behavior? Scientific evidence? I suppose you could measure dissolved O2 & correlate it with the wines decline, but if you've got a decent nose & palate it's a pretty easy exercise to perform, & the conclusion is pretty evident, even without measuring O2 uptake. I'm not trying to be a naysayer, but . . . Peters technique should have some effect, but again, how many people use the product(s) in that manner? just sayin' . . . Cheers to finishing the bottle! "[cheers.gif]"

[Peter Tryba]

What Chaad and PeterJ said

[Dick Krueger]

We never have wine left in a bottle, except for some Ports and Madeiras. We've even been known to argue over who gets to finish the bottle. Therefore I have never tried any methods for keeping wine. Over the years there have been a couple bottles that i put back in the cellar with just a clean cork stuck back in. After an indeterminate period of time, the wine was still very drinkable.

[Rob Hansult]

[quote="PeterJ"][quote="Rob Hansult"] Peter, I'd say the evidence that so many people believe that gassing after an hour helps the wine last longer is seeing what & how people are using these inert gas products, which is gassing the wine that's left when they are finished & there is wine leftover. Have you been witnessing a different sort of behavior? Scientific evidence? I suppose you could measure dissolved O2 & correlate it with the wines decline, but if you've got a decent nose & palate it's a pretty easy exercise to perform, & the conclusion is pretty evident, even without measuring O2 uptake. I'm not trying to be a naysayer, but . . . Peters technique should have some effect, but again, how many people use the product(s) in that manner? just sayin' . . . Cheers to finishing the bottle! "[cheers.gif]"

[Victor Hong]

[quote="T. Johnson"]Hello all. I can't find an earlier thread related to this subject (although I'm sure it's been discussed before). Anyhow, curious to know peoples preferred system for preserving an opened bottle (one that will be consumed slowly over 2-3 days)? I currently use a vacu-vin, but some of my more astute wine friends warn of the loss of aromatics from this method. I don't worry with regards to young wines, but wonder if vacu-vin might be harmful to older bottles? Thanks in advance for any helpful info.

[Rob Hansult]

[quote="Victor Hong"][quote="T. Johnson"]Hello all. I can't find an earlier thread related to this subject (although I'm sure it's been discussed before). Anyhow, curious to know peoples preferred system for preserving an opened bottle (one that will be consumed slowly over 2-3 days)? I currently use a vacu-vin, but some of my more astute wine friends warn of the loss of aromatics from this method. I don't worry with regards to young wines, but wonder if vacu-vin might be harmful to older bottles? Thanks in advance for any helpful info.

[PeterJ]

[quote="Rob Hansult"] Peter J, Ignorance is the reason many continue using a "preservation" system that does little to preserve a wine from the effects of oxygen. Ignorance, unfortunately is a keystone of the wine biz on the consumer side - sad to say, but that's a whole 'nother thread. "pileon" I'm not surprised you believe your "evidence" disagrees with my claim. You do sell gas preservation systems - be pretty hard to do if you couldn't stand behind the product & theory in some way. just belaboring a point . . . Again . . . "[cheers.gif]"

[Rob Hansult]

Peter, Having been in & around the business of drinking, making, growing, selling & collecting wine since the late 70's I'm not the least bit surprised that "so many otherwise knowledgeable people go to all that trouble and expense for no reason." When people are not that knowledgeable, or ignorant about wine they tend to do a lot of silly thinks. You give your customers & other "experts" more respect than I do quite frankly. I don't think your argument holds up. You can chalk it up to my opinion. How many people pay too much for poor wine - over & over & over. "Otherwise knowledgeable" people going through all that trouble & expense for no reason. You said you've sold wine, so you must have seen this phenomenon. How many "knowledgeable" people smell the cork given them by the Sommelier. An absolutely useless exercise. I'm not trying to disparage you or your preservation system, but I'm sure the "They" doing the testing are connected to the manufacturer. Besides that, as I said somewhere above - I've got a pretty sharp palate for both flaws & positive attributes of wine & I have tried these experiments myself & the only time I see any effect that can be sensed is when as soon as the bottle is opened, 1/2 the contents are poured into a split & gassed & put in the Fridge. The biggest factor that I'M blown away by & that you don't accept is that the majority of the uses of products like this are after a decent amount of time in which the wine has unquestionable absorbed a decent chunk of oxygen. It's dissolved in the wine & is & will be reacting with it no matter what you do. It's at this point that most of these systems are used - after the wine has absorbed dissolved oxygen. I don't think I need to be Einstein to know what's happening to that wine. The average wine drinkers sensitivity, or lack of for all sorts of flaws is another reason they may not really notice the deterioration in the wine. That's all I'm saying. To me these things seem pretty self evident & I'm surprised so many Disagree with me. Anyway - those are the points I wanted to make, & maybe they are slightly clearer now, or we'll just have to agree to disagree, K? Cheers "[cheers.gif]"

[chaad thomas]

[quote="Rob Hansult"]Peter, Having been in & around the business of drinking, making, growing, selling & collecting wine since the late 70's I'm not the least bit surprised that "so many otherwise knowledgeable people go to all that trouble and expense for no reason." When people are not that knowledgeable, or ignorant about wine they tend to do a lot of silly thinks. You give your customers & other "experts" more respect than I do quite frankly. I don't think your argument holds up. You can chalk it up to my opinion. How many people pay too much for poor wine - over & over & over. "Otherwise knowledgeable" people going through all that trouble & expense for no reason. You said you've sold wine, so you must have seen this phenomenon. How many "knowledgeable" people smell the cork given them by the Sommelier. An absolutely useless exercise. I'm not trying to disparage you or your preservation system, but I'm sure the "They" doing the testing are connected to the manufacturer. Besides that, as I said somewhere above - I've got a pretty sharp palate for both flaws & positive attributes of wine & I have tried these experiments myself & the only time I see any effect that can be sensed is when as soon as the bottle is opened, 1/2 the contents are poured into a split & gassed & put in the Fridge. The biggest factor that I'M blown away by & that you don't accept is that the majority of the uses of products like this are after a decent amount of time in which the wine has unquestionable absorbed a decent chunk of oxygen. It's dissolved in the wine & is & will be reacting with it no matter what you do. It's at this point that most of these systems are used - after the wine has absorbed dissolved oxygen. I don't think I need to be Einstein to know what's happening to that wine. The average wine drinkers sensitivity, or lack of for all sorts of flaws is another reason they may not really notice the deterioration in the wine. That's all I'm saying. To me these things seem pretty self evident & I'm surprised so many Disagree with me. Anyway - those are the points I wanted to make, & maybe they are slightly clearer now, or we'll just have to agree to disagree, K? Cheers "[cheers.gif]"

[PeterJ]

[quote="Rob Hansult"] I'm not trying to disparage you or your preservation system, but I'm sure the "They" doing the testing are connected to the manufacturer. Actually, they're not. These have been independent testers of my system as well as others who use their own gas methods. The average wine drinkers sensitivity, or lack of for all sorts of flaws is another reason they may not really notice the deterioration in the wine.

[Rob Hansult]

[quote="chaad thomas"][quote="Rob Hansult"]Peter, Having been in & around the business of drinking, making, growing, selling & collecting wine since the late 70's I'm not the least bit surprised that "so many otherwise knowledgeable people go to all that trouble and expense for no reason." When people are not that knowledgeable, or ignorant about wine they tend to do a lot of silly thinks. You give your customers & other "experts" more respect than I do quite frankly. I don't think your argument holds up. You can chalk it up to my opinion. How many people pay too much for poor wine - over & over & over. "Otherwise knowledgeable" people going through all that trouble & expense for no reason. You said you've sold wine, so you must have seen this phenomenon. How many "knowledgeable" people smell the cork given them by the Sommelier. An absolutely useless exercise. I'm not trying to disparage you or your preservation system, but I'm sure the "They" doing the testing are connected to the manufacturer. Besides that, as I said somewhere above - I've got a pretty sharp palate for both flaws & positive attributes of wine & I have tried these experiments myself & the only time I see any effect that can be sensed is when as soon as the bottle is opened, 1/2 the contents are poured into a split & gassed & put in the Fridge. The biggest factor that I'M blown away by & that you don't accept is that the majority of the uses of products like this are after a decent amount of time in which the wine has unquestionable absorbed a decent chunk of oxygen. It's dissolved in the wine & is & will be reacting with it no matter what you do. It's at this point that most of these systems are used - after the wine has absorbed dissolved oxygen. I don't think I need to be Einstein to know what's happening to that wine. The average wine drinkers sensitivity, or lack of for all sorts of flaws is another reason they may not really notice the deterioration in the wine. That's all I'm saying. To me these things seem pretty self evident & I'm surprised so many Disagree with me. Anyway - those are the points I wanted to make, & maybe they are slightly clearer now, or we'll just have to agree to disagree, K? Cheers "[cheers.gif]"

[chaad thomas]

[quote="Rob Hansult"][quote="chaad thomas"][quote="Rob Hansult"]Peter, Having been in & around the business of drinking, making, growing, selling & collecting wine since the late 70's I'm not the least bit surprised that "so many otherwise knowledgeable people go to all that trouble and expense for no reason." When people are not that knowledgeable, or ignorant about wine they tend to do a lot of silly thinks. You give your customers & other "experts" more respect than I do quite frankly. I don't think your argument holds up. You can chalk it up to my opinion. How many people pay too much for poor wine - over & over & over. "Otherwise knowledgeable" people going through all that trouble & expense for no reason. You said you've sold wine, so you must have seen this phenomenon. How many "knowledgeable" people smell the cork given them by the Sommelier. An absolutely useless exercise. I'm not trying to disparage you or your preservation system, but I'm sure the "They" doing the testing are connected to the manufacturer. Besides that, as I said somewhere above - I've got a pretty sharp palate for both flaws & positive attributes of wine & I have tried these experiments myself & the only time I see any effect that can be sensed is when as soon as the bottle is opened, 1/2 the contents are poured into a split & gassed & put in the Fridge. The biggest factor that I'M blown away by & that you don't accept is that the majority of the uses of products like this are after a decent amount of time in which the wine has unquestionable absorbed a decent chunk of oxygen. It's dissolved in the wine & is & will be reacting with it no matter what you do. It's at this point that most of these systems are used - after the wine has absorbed dissolved oxygen. I don't think I need to be Einstein to know what's happening to that wine. The average wine drinkers sensitivity, or lack of for all sorts of flaws is another reason they may not really notice the deterioration in the wine. That's all I'm saying. To me these things seem pretty self evident & I'm surprised so many Disagree with me. Anyway - those are the points I wanted to make, & maybe they are slightly clearer now, or we'll just have to agree to disagree, K? Cheers "[cheers.gif]"

[Rob Hansult]

[quote="PeterJ"][quote="Rob Hansult"] I'm not trying to disparage you or your preservation system, but I'm sure the "They" doing the testing are connected to the manufacturer. Actually, they're not. These have been independent testers of my system as well as others who use their own gas methods. The average wine drinkers sensitivity, or lack of for all sorts of flaws is another reason they may not really notice the deterioration in the wine.

[Rob Hansult]

[quote="chaad thomas"][quote="Rob Hansult"][quote="chaad thomas"][quote="Rob Hansult"]Peter, Having been in & around the business of drinking, making, growing, selling & collecting wine since the late 70's I'm not the least bit surprised that "so many otherwise knowledgeable people go to all that trouble and expense for no reason." When people are not that knowledgeable, or ignorant about wine they tend to do a lot of silly thinks. You give your customers & other "experts" more respect than I do quite frankly. I don't think your argument holds up. You can chalk it up to my opinion. How many people pay too much for poor wine - over & over & over. "Otherwise knowledgeable" people going through all that trouble & expense for no reason. You said you've sold wine, so you must have seen this phenomenon. How many "knowledgeable" people smell the cork given them by the Sommelier. An absolutely useless exercise. I'm not trying to disparage you or your preservation system, but I'm sure the "They" doing the testing are connected to the manufacturer. Besides that, as I said somewhere above - I've got a pretty sharp palate for both flaws & positive attributes of wine & I have tried these experiments myself & the only time I see any effect that can be sensed is when as soon as the bottle is opened, 1/2 the contents are poured into a split & gassed & put in the Fridge. The biggest factor that I'M blown away by & that you don't accept is that the majority of the uses of products like this are after a decent amount of time in which the wine has unquestionable absorbed a decent chunk of oxygen. It's dissolved in the wine & is & will be reacting with it no matter what you do. It's at this point that most of these systems are used - after the wine has absorbed dissolved oxygen. I don't think I need to be Einstein to know what's happening to that wine. The average wine drinkers sensitivity, or lack of for all sorts of flaws is another reason they may not really notice the deterioration in the wine. That's all I'm saying. To me these things seem pretty self evident & I'm surprised so many Disagree with me. Anyway - those are the points I wanted to make, & maybe they are slightly clearer now, or we'll just have to agree to disagree, K? Cheers "[cheers.gif]"

[PeterJ]

[quote="Rob Hansult"] Hey Peter, I wouldn't mind having a look at your testing results. [quote] Rob, They aren't scientific testing results. The guys at a well-known local wine webcast/website have been doing some testing of the unit and have said they're up to 7 days with no apparent oxidation. Also, another wine blogger of some repute has said he was fine with it after three days (he didn't try more because that's his personal limit for any opened wine). My own observation is a week or so, depending on the wine, but I know my palate is not as sensitive as that of others, so I've asked for independent evaluations. The argon I use is specifically targeted to the food & beverage industry and is used more and more by wineries for sparging and for topping off tanks. I recently received some info that debunked the rather widely-held notion that whatever gas is used forms a layer on top of the wine. The argon apparently begins mixing with the wine almost immediately, so the methodology is to inject enough argon into the space to create an argon-rich environment. Just how much argon seems to depend on palate sensitivity, but the ultimate (which squares with your thought) is to inject enough to purge virtually all the air. I've been able to create a matrix of how long to inject gas in relation to the amount of empty space. "[drinks.gif]"