One problem in trying to save remaining wine after a wine tasting is that the bottles have been open for hours and in many cases they were double decanted hours before that. Winesaver doesn’t help in that situation it seems nor placing in half bottles, etc. Woud this have any better effect then them or is the cat out of the bag?
I think that enough questions have been raised that someone - or a group of folks - really need to ‘test’ this out versus the other methods suggested:
Coravin
Argon gas (winesaver, etc)
Putting into smaller container
Doing nothing
The ‘challenge’ is to do this blind - and to make sure that you are only dealing with a single variable. Perhaps this won’t be done on an 82 Bordeaux but instead on a less expensive wine that is a) young enough to ‘need’ air and b) expressive enough that you will note the difference.
Cheers.
And one question since I have not used these - are they ‘universal’ in fit so they will work with cork / screw cap / any type of closure? My guess is yes based on the design, but the reason I ask is that if you look at the Amazon reviews, a bunch of people say that it ‘does not fit’. Comments please?
Cheers!
Oxygen is in the headspace because you remove wine from the bottle. Having the cork introduces oxygen.
That depends on how much you believe the volatiles in the head space are important to keep in the bottle. This device leaves those in place, while purging with a gas drives them out.
Meaning that further oxidation would be “prevented” but previous oxidation not reversed. I only ask because it seems that Winesaver works well when a freshly opened bottle has a glass or two poured out and then the argon placed, but when the bottle has been open for hours it’s relative level of freshness does not seem to be as well maintained by the next day. That also seems to be the case when I pour to the top of a small bottle and seal it. So I am wondering whether the oxidation process and degradation that has already occurred over hours continues in some way so that simply preventing further exposure to oxygen is not enough to maintain its condition as effectively. If any of that makes any sense at all.
Yeah typically when I use my vacuvin I’ll pour the wine out then immediately vacuum the bottle; if you leave it open I’m sure it it’d evolve more. I bought a few of these to try.
They do fit on screw caps (actually have it on your Watch Hills Grenache right now). Just remove the screw and place the stopper into the bottle. I’d expect it to work with any typical bottle.
Got a pack of these recently after some online discussions over here. No conclusions as yet but have just started an initial trial comparing two bottles of entry level chardonnay, same wine, same source. Empty out half the wine from each, Repour on one, original screwcap on the other, back into fridge, leave for a week, take out, leave 10 mins to warm up slightly, re-taste blind. Will report back, and look forward to hearing results from others. Trial with red wine resealed using Repour and not put into a fridge for a week would also be interesting.
Based on their blurb, one person over here calculated Repour could absorb the O2 from around 10-20 bottles (depending on fill level), so I see no reason you can’t just keep using it on multiple bottles, although obviously there will come a point where it’s O2 absorption is complete and your bottle is no longer protected. I suppose enough experience should determine how far this can go.
Assuming it works (and it does according to many people), I’m surprised no one thought of it earlier! Iron and Salt eh, that’s some fancy chemistry right there. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
One of the bungs I use is the Alasco Dalco Dual bung…it’s a silicone bung that has a ‘plug’ in the middle, pull it up to be a fermentation bung, push it down to be a solid/non-ferm bung. I’m sure you’ve seen/use them. They’re terrible for anything with a steady/rapid fermentation rate, but I like them for barrels whose ML is trickling along on/off. Anyways, I believe the diameter of the plug is compatible/same as the repour (haven’t verified this yet). So I’m thinking I could put the bung (sans plug) on the partial keg, gas the keg with Nitrogen/Argon, then put the repour in to get the remaining O2 that you can never get with gassing alone. Currently, I’m doing more elaborate (and boring, so will spare the details) to avoid this…if the repour works it’d simplify my life. Woo Hoo.
I agree that partial vacuums are a possible complicating matter wrt diffusion. I think this is an excellent question for Alan/Al! I’m assuming the ‘normal’ diffusion laws/rules apply here, and the diffusion is accelerated due to the small population of molecules. But I’m just guessing/assuming here.
Jamie Wolff? Did you mean Jamie Goode? I’ve been spotty about keeping up lately, so I missed all/some of the discussions about aromatics and diffusion. I can certainly see that alcohol & sugar would change things, but mostly in the area of liquid to air transition. I wouldn’t thing the diffusion in the liquid (wine) would change enough to have any material affect. Assuming that’s true, my thoughts on the ‘depletion’ of aromatics being limited to the surface still seems reasonable (to me).
I bought a few of these based off this post. Six days ago I opened a 2011 Gonon St Joe. It was very much in the zone - the kind of bottle where I wouldn’t want to waste a drop.
I’ve tried most of the preservation systems out there: 1/2 bottle w/ screwcap, Vacuvin, Coravin, Pungo. I’d never been satisfied with any of them - sometimes Coravin/Pungo would work well, but it was never consistent.
The repour was head and shoulders above the rest. I didn’t observe any of the tightness or need to air the wine again - it was good to go right out of the bottle. The wine was in brilliant shape. It’s drinking as well as it did on the day I opened it.
This is only one data point, but it’s off to a strong start. Excited to keep trying these on different bottles.
Yes, Jamie Goode. My bad. (Jamie Wolfe is one of the owners of Chambers Street Wines.)
Goode had an article in Somm Journal (I think) that summarized research on the impact of sugar and alcohol on aromas. Bottom line: Sweet wines are more aromatic because the volatile aroma compounds evaporate more rapidly when there is a lot of dissolved sugar. That explains the huge difference between dry and sweet rieslings, which are hardly recognizable as coming from the same grape.
He also cited research showing that aromas drop off as alcohol increases. I found this a little counter-intuitive. As I recall, it’s because the alcohol helps keep the aroma compounds dissolved in the wine. He described tests where the alcohol in a wine was manipulated to find the optimal alcohol level to maximize aromas. This varied with particular wine. Above and below that level, the aromas were less intense. In general, they optimal levels were relatively low. I think he cited examples where 11.5 or 12.5 yielded the best bouquet.
I think I clipped and filed the article. I’ll have to see if I can dig it out. It was fascinating.
Hi everyone,
Last night saw the conclusion to my first experiment with the Repour stopper, and the results were very interesting. I have no personal or commercial ties to the product, just wanted to report my findings in the hope it may be of interest to others.
The wine in question was a Punt Road Emperor’s Prize Yarra Valley Chardonnay 2016, under screwcap. Around the $20AU mark, I believe the wine is a decent example of an everyday modern Australian chardonnay which I think punches a little bit above its price point.
Three bottles, same wine, purchased at same time from the same retailer.
Bottle A was opened on 25th April around 4pm, half the contents poured out, immediately tightly resealed with its original screwcap, and put into the fridge at around 4C.
Bottle B was opened on 25th April around 4pm, half the contents poured out, immediately tightly resealed with a new Repour stopper, and put into the fridge at around 4C.
Bottle C was not opened, and was put into the fridge at around 4C at the same time. Then an hour before leaving the house last night, this bottle was opened, poured into a decanter for a brief 10 minute decant, poured back into the bottle, screwcap back on, back into the fridge until I took the three bottles to dinner, 9 days after the first two were originally opened.
I ensured the wines were carefully masked and presented blind, both to myself and my three dinner companions, all experienced tasters with palates I respect. Of course I knew what they were, but not what order they were served in, my dinner companions just knew I was presenting three blind white wines, nothing else. Let’s now call the three blind, mixed up wines, 1, 2 and 3.
Number 3 immediately stood out as the most vibrant and high quality on the nose and palate. There were murmurs of approval.
Number 1 was quite good, yet not as vibrant, lifted or exciting as Number 3, and on the palate was a touch dull in comparison to 3 as well. But still a fairly good wine.
Number 2 was a bit tired and lacking energy, acid line and drive. Not terrible, just paled in comparison to the others.
After this initial round of tasting and discussion, I announced that all wines were the same, and what the test was all about.
Everyone soon agreed that the favourite (Wine 3) was probably the freshly opened wine, Wine 1 was likely the 9 day old Repour and Wine 2 the 9 day old Screwcap sealed wine.
Wrong. We unveiled and found that the favourite wine was the Repour stoppered one!
I am now convinced the Repour device works very well at keeping a half full bottle of wine very fresh and vibrant for over a week in the fridge. There were zero signs of any oxidation at all, the wine showed extremely well, both on the nose and palate. Wine 2 was not showing much in the way of oxidation either, which did surprise me a little, nonetheless Wine 2 was fairly lifeless. Also, I suspect the newly opened wine (1) may have shown better with a few more hours of air, but the difference between the Repour stoppered wine and the screwcap stoppered wine after 9 days was dramatic. In theory the bottle should last much longer than 9 days while retaining excellent aromas and freshness, a month or more would not surprise me based on this result.
Prior to this experiment, I’ve been using a single Repour across a couple of bottles for a couple of weeks, taking a good glass sized pour from the bottle each night or two until the bottle is finished, then transferring the same Repour stopper to a different bottle and repeating over 3 or 4 glasses. In this case a (different) Australian Chardonnay and a young Village Red Burgundy. Both bottles showed no signs of deterioration across a week or so and drank as well on day 6 or 7 as they did on day 1 or 2. Not sure exactly how long the oxygen absorbing properties of the Repour would last when used like this, but I certainly got 8 or so ‘open and restopper’ events across two bottles across 2 weeks out of a single RePour. (Of course they recommend disposing after a single bottle, to ensure each bottle is correctly preserved. Hmm…)
Here in Australia, the price ranges from around $2.40 to $4 per Repour stopper, depending on how many you buy, shipping etc. For leftovers after tasting events, and for spreading a bottle or two across a week or three, this device is perfect for me. I’ve just ordered a bunch more!
Cheers
Tim
I tried this on a 1961 LdH (I think it’s more interesting to test on an old wine to see if it can keep it from falling off). Took out just short of a half of the bottle and popped in a Repour. The next day, I found the wine just as fresh and alive. Obviously anecdotal but I was pleased by the results.
I’m disappointed it’s single use and you have to throw it out (seems like the Keurig problem). Still, I think I can find a use case for keeping a few of these around.
With respect to the single use issue, from the Repour website:
Repour keeps one bottle of wine fresh until the last glass. Each stopper is designed to save a full bottle of wine, even take glass by glass over days, weeks or months. If used on a second bottle, Repour may lose its oxygen-absorbing capacity before you are done with the bottle. So start with a new Repour stopper with each new bottle.
So there’s enough O2 absorbing material to keep a bottle fresh even if you pour a single glass a day over days or weeks? That suggests enough for 4-6 openings of the bottle. If you finish a bottle in 2 or 3 goes, it sounds like the Repour would still have capacity to work on a second bottle. But you’d need to either re-seal the Repour or open the second bottle at the same time you finished the first.
OTOH, they’re not that expensive unless you’re using them on every bottle.
How do they come packaged? If you just leave one on the counter, doesn’t that ruin it?
There’s a piece of foil on the bottom of the stopper. You peel it off before use.
So no way to take it out of one bottle, leave it lying around, then use for another bottle. Truly single use.
I suppose if you opened the second bottle immediately after the first, poured some out, and plugged it in right away… But that’s a bit of an edge use case indeed.