After owning a wine shop and tasting bar for several years I thought I saw a need for a high quality, lightweight, portable, high-capacity, low-use-cost device for preserving leftover wine. While this is most likely a business-to-business product (for tasting rooms, restaurants, wine bars, even wine reps) it turned out so cool that I’m thinking that aficionados may have interest as well. The units come with two filled cylinders and you send the empties back to us for re-fill.
Anyway… here’s a link below to the beginning of a website that gives details. I’ll be adding a shopping cart page soon.
I also have a PowerPoint presentation put together than goes into more detail and gives several cost-saving/profit-generating models.
This device is made from high quality industrial parts and the regulator/trigger was re-engineered from a unit used for high-pressure uses to provide low pressure for this purpose. All made in the USA by the way. After some extensive research, and some advice from people at UC Davis and a large Sonoma winery, I decided to fill the cylinders with only Air Liquide ALIGAL™ Argon, used in wine production for sparging mostly.
The suggested retail price of the units (including a second filled cylinder and including shipping, will be $279. In order to get some units out in the market, I’d like to offer VinAssure™ to Wine Berserkers members for $199. That includes enough Argon to preserve up to 1400 bottles… should last some of you a week or two. ) You return the empties to us and we fill them and send them back. If you’re a high volume user, and can buy as many as 4 refills at a time, the per-use cost gets down to less than a 3 cents a use. Even at just one at a time it’s around 8 cents.
If you’re interested, please e-mail me through the board or at info@vinassure.com.
Seems like a number of people have gone to the site to see the unit. Anyone have any comments, questions, input? All thoughts cheerfully accepted… unless you really hate it, but I need to hear that too.
I think the price is rather steep. I’m sure this might benefit older bottles but if I am opening a nice old bottle there is no way it is leaving the table unfinished. Most stuff I keep in the fridge overnight is daily drinker stuff. I dont see the need for an expensive preservation system in my household.
I would agree. I don’t drink that much expensive wine, so I don’t see the need to properly preserve it - typically my wines are gone in two days, and if I need to take some air out, I either put it in a 375ml bottle or I will use the air pump thing. Normally, however, I just cork it and refrigerate it. Seems like a no-brainer type of device for a tasting room, but I’m just guessing, as I don’t own one…
Product: Not useful as most people consume their wine within a day or two… thus no need for such an expensive preservation system. Tasting rooms will be useful, but they may need a bigger more elaborate system, especially one that is self sustainable (i.e. no need to refill by sending back etc).
Price: too expensive for individual consumers.
Market: Individuals - mostly out. Large tasting rooms: mostly out. So that leaves small tasting rooms (i.e. small wineries that do tasting by appointment etc.
I like the product, but as an individual, just don’t need one. I’d buy one for 20 bucks… but for 200, i rather get half a case of wine…
Thanks for the input folks. As I said in my first post, I don’t really see this as something for most home users as it is obviously costly, and has enough uses in it to last the average person a few years at least. BUT… it is a way for the sensitive user to have the use of winery-grade argon gas in the home. This is absolutely the best method to use if you buy into the mechanical preservation theory at all.
I also have an option, for large users, where I supply the hardware so they can re-fill my cylinders themselves, and an option where they can run off an industrial-size cylinder, with a long hose & delivery gun (if they prefer that). But these are trade options and I’m trying to separate the two somehow in my marketing approach.
I can think of a ton of restaurants that should be using these in my local area. Like others however, once we pop something, we are gonna finish it. Good thought though, and should be an easy sell for some consumer clientel… -mJ
Peter,
Nice to know there’s another source for these things. I bought a similar cannister created by a wine buddy of mine in L.A. several years ago for about $300, and it worked well for me. (He claimed he’d preserved bottles for many years with Argon, and that they’d tasted fine after 8 to 10 years; I never kept anything I’d gassed more than a couple of weeks, so I can’t attest to that claim.) When I moved up to Northern Cailfornia, it became a hassle to arrange to get the cannister back to him for refilling (we did that a couple times though), so I’ve not been using it for the past couple years, and seem to be doing fine just decanting my unused wine for the evening into smaller bottles (500, 375 and 187 ml), and making sure those bottles are filled to top so there’s no air contact. I can think of some people with larger cellars who might be interested in the product, though, so I’ll let them know about it.
The standard cylinder I use is 12 ounces and is only about 2 lbs. and 9" x3". Of course, there are larger cylinders but they’re heavier and a bit unwieldy(?) to use this way. The way I’m going to handle the return thing is supply a FedEx label for the empty on request. The issue with returning it filled (as with the original purchase, if shipped) is that the cylinder is under high pressure so it’s considered hazmat by FedEx and UPS (USPS won’t take it at all)… but all that means is I had to go through training, there are specific packaging requirements, and a hazmat handling fee. No big deal really, but I suggest buying several refills at a time (if the customer can handle use them in a reasonable time) to spread the fee over more uses.
Yes. It’s funny, but when I read a post I see the avatar in my peripheral vision. For those who use the same picture over time like Jordan, I assume that’s who I’m reading.
) You return the empties to us and we fill them and send them back. If you’re a high volume user, and can buy as many as 4 refills at a time, the per-use cost gets down to less than a 3 cents a use. Even at just one at a time it’s around 8 cents.![[thankyou.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/d/df165fe9c1593d19166ae7e1ffe5e272089cc07b.gif "thankyou"){kind=small}