Wine preservation systems - which do you recommend?

[KyleC]

Coravin definitely works, although I’ve taken to melting a bit of candle wax over the point where the needle was inserted. Depending on the cork, sometime the hole doesn’t reseal well and you can even have wine dripping out if you lay the bottle on its side.

Just bought some Repours and will do a blind comparison to Coravin at an upcoming dinner.

Look forward to the comparison. I’ve had the cork reseal issue as well, thanks for the candle wax tip!

[Philip_G]

Coravin definitely works, although I’ve taken to melting a bit of candle wax over the point where the needle was inserted. Depending on the cork, sometime the hole doesn’t reseal well and you can even have wine dripping out if you lay the bottle on its side.

Just bought some Repours and will do a blind comparison to Coravin at an upcoming dinner.

Coravin is great if you know ahead of time you only want a glass or two and I think it’s the only one that will preserve the wine for weeks or months. I don’t believe a bottle that’s been opened and exposed to air for any length of time would be good for several months even with the air removed since the oxidation process has been started but I could be wrong. Are you going to do long term testing of weeks and months? I might get some Repours and try something similar.

I’ve been using ArT if I have a bottle left open at the end of the night and it seems to keep the wine for up to about a week if I put it back in the cellar (standing up).

I’ve had a few “drippers” from the Coravin. Sucks, it gets the bottles below it sticky Now I’ll usually leave the bottle standing up for a bit to let the cork reseal before putting back laying down.

[Philip_G]

Every black friday weekend Coravin does a 50% off sale. You can snag a coravin and 4 capsules for about $199. If you’re in no rush and have the option to wait until November.

You can save 10% on capsules through Amazon’s subscribe and save. It’s pretty configurable on how many and how often so you can tune it to get to your rate of use.

[John_Kight]

i use repour i likey. only issue i have with them is i feel wine takes awhile to come back around in that “zero” oxygen environment.

That’s my issue with this one too. It’s not that the wine appears oxidized in any way the next day…but it seems that the wine goes into a sort of “bottle shock” state or just shuts down and becomes less espressive. And unlike you, I haven’t necessarily found that it simply comes back around (at least not within the hour or two that it might take me to finish the remainder of the wine…admittedly I haven’t tried pulling the repour and waiting 3 hours).

Not sure if it’s the zero oxygen environment that causes this issue, given that the bottle was ALSO in (essentially) zero oxygen before the cork was pulled, but something is definitely going on.

[Mike_Evans]

I’ll throw out a Repour data point from tonight. I had about half a bottle left of a 1994 Mondavi Reserve CS from a tasting on July 20 so I stuck a Repour in it and threw it in the fridge. I poured it tonight with a Flannery ribeye and it hadn’t faded at all. If anything, the wine showed better tonight than it was when I first poured it.

[alan_weinberg]

Pungo. Great system.

[josh_bryer]

Pungo. Great system.

Alan, do you find the Pungo less aggressive than the Coravin in terms of pouring method relative to sediment stir? Thanks!

[alan_weinberg]

Pungo. Great system.

Alan, do you find the Pungo less aggressive than the Coravin in terms of pouring method relative to sediment stir? Thanks!

I use it only for young wines without sediment. Tipping the bottle of course would stir up sediment. It pours well and capsules are cheaper than Coravin. It allows my wife to have a glass a night instead of having the bottle deteriorate or, heaven forbid, require opening yet another bottle.

[ToddFrench]

I’ll throw out a Repour data point from tonight. I had about half a bottle left of a 1994 Mondavi Reserve CS from a tasting on July 20 so I stuck a Repour in it and threw it in the fridge. I poured it tonight with a Flannery ribeye and it hadn’t faded at all. If anything, the wine showed better tonight than it was when I first poured it.

That’s a good data point - being in the fridge certainly helped, however, but it would seem Repour would work without refrigeration easily and effectively for a couple of days, if it can go that long on an old wine with refrigeration

[joeduncan]

It will take a lot of capsules for a pungo to break even with a coravin price wise. $430 vs $175 (or much less even if you’re willing to buy new on eBay).

[Adam_Frisch]

What I can’t find anywhere is - is Repour re-usable? Meaning, can I keep using the cork, or is it a one shot deal? Maybe I’m not understanding the technology.

[Scott_Butler]

What I can’t find anywhere is - is Repour re-usable? Meaning, can I keep using the cork, or is it a one shot deal? Maybe I’m not understanding the technology.

Adam, from the Q&A section on Amazon:

If you can use it multiple times for the same bottle of wine then why can’t you reuse it for another bottle? Do they magically stop working?
Answer: Thanks for the question! Each Repour stopper is designed around a single 750 ml bottle of wine, consumed glass by glass. In this way, Repour can absorb the Oxygen out of 1500 ml of air. The math behind this 1500 ml calculation goes like this:

1 glass gone = 150 ml
2 glass gone = 300 ml
3 glass gone = 450 ml
4 glass gone = 600 ml
5th glass = bottle’s empty

1500 ml of air

We fully endorse finding creative ways to stretch a single stopper from one bottle to the next (and are happy to share the “hacks” that people have shared with us), but also want to make sure that every user has a perfect experience with Repour. In this way, we only formally endorse use over one bottle of wine as we know if you use a Repour stopper in this way you’ll have exceptional results!

Each Repour stopper is good for one bottle of wine, even when consumed glass-by-glass. When storing a saved bottle with Repour, to enjoy another glass, simply remove the Repour stopper, pour another glass and then restop the bottle with the same Repour stopper. Repeat as needed until the bottle is empty, One stopper-One bottle.

[Adam_Frisch]

Thank you Scott!

[ToddFrench]

What I can’t find anywhere is - is Repour re-usable? Meaning, can I keep using the cork, or is it a one shot deal? Maybe I’m not understanding the technology.

Adam, from the Q&A section on Amazon:

If you can use it multiple times for the same bottle of wine then why can’t you reuse it for another bottle? Do they magically stop working?
Answer: Thanks for the question! Each Repour stopper is designed around a single 750 ml bottle of wine, consumed glass by glass. In this way, Repour can absorb the Oxygen out of 1500 ml of air. The math behind this 1500 ml calculation goes like this:

1 glass gone = 150 ml
2 glass gone = 300 ml
3 glass gone = 450 ml
4 glass gone = 600 ml
5th glass = bottle’s empty

1500 ml of air

We fully endorse finding creative ways to stretch a single stopper from one bottle to the next (and are happy to share the “hacks” that people have shared with us), but also want to make sure that every user has a perfect experience with Repour. In this way, we only formally endorse use over one bottle of wine as we know if you use a Repour stopper in this way you’ll have exceptional results!

Each Repour stopper is good for one bottle of wine, even when consumed glass-by-glass. When storing a saved bottle with Repour, to enjoy another glass, simply remove the Repour stopper, pour another glass and then restop the bottle with the same Repour stopper. Repeat as needed until the bottle is empty, One stopper-One bottle.

If you use it only once on a bottle, say, half a bottle full, wouldn’t you be able to use it again, then?

[Scott_Butler]

What I can’t find anywhere is - is Repour re-usable? Meaning, can I keep using the cork, or is it a one shot deal? Maybe I’m not understanding the technology.

Adam, from the Q&A section on Amazon:

If you can use it multiple times for the same bottle of wine then why can’t you reuse it for another bottle? Do they magically stop working?
Answer: Thanks for the question! Each Repour stopper is designed around a single 750 ml bottle of wine, consumed glass by glass. In this way, Repour can absorb the Oxygen out of 1500 ml of air. The math behind this 1500 ml calculation goes like this:

1 glass gone = 150 ml
2 glass gone = 300 ml
3 glass gone = 450 ml
4 glass gone = 600 ml
5th glass = bottle’s empty

1500 ml of air

We fully endorse finding creative ways to stretch a single stopper from one bottle to the next (and are happy to share the “hacks” that people have shared with us), but also want to make sure that every user has a perfect experience with Repour. In this way, we only formally endorse use over one bottle of wine as we know if you use a Repour stopper in this way you’ll have exceptional results!

Each Repour stopper is good for one bottle of wine, even when consumed glass-by-glass. When storing a saved bottle with Repour, to enjoy another glass, simply remove the Repour stopper, pour another glass and then restop the bottle with the same Repour stopper. Repeat as needed until the bottle is empty, One stopper-One bottle.

If you use it only once on a bottle, say, half a bottle full, wouldn’t you be able to use it again, then?

I agree Todd, and it almost seems like Repour guy probably agrees, though he only “formally” endorses the one method. There is probably some liability or product guarantee reason why he only endorses the one method.

Never heard of these until 15 minutes ago, but I bought a pack!

[ToddFrench]

I’ve sent them a message that they may want to participate in BerserkerDay

[Scott_Butler]

I’ve sent them a message that they may want to participate in BerserkerDay

NICE!

[Alan_Rath]

I would think so, though that might depend on how long you wait to use it on the next bottles. Is there a way to seal up the stopper when out of the bottle? If not, and it’s just lying on the counter, it will absorb oxygen from the air and become saturated.

[John_Morris]

For a bottle to be drunk over a couple to several days, I have always used the Vacu Vin (pump til it clicks ) wine saver. Is it not thought of as reliable?

I still have one of those as well, but haven’t found it to be terribly reliable/effective

FWIW, and you may already do this, I have found that wetting the stopper opening a bit (then shaking it off) before pumping seems to produce a more reliable longer lasting vacuum seal. When I forget to do this, the seal seems to give way sooner than I would like.

I used these years ago, and I found that, after a glass or two, they completely annihilated the aromas. The problem, I think, it that you’re reducing the air pressure, which causes aroma compounds in the wine to evaporate – it basically sucked the volatile stuff you want to smell into the headspace. Beyond a glass or two, the wines were consistently degraded, I found. And I refrigerated after opening.

Also, it’s not creating anything like a vacuum, so there’s oxygen in there. It’s just sucking out some of the air.

I still use the stoppers without the pump, though!

[ToddFrench]

I still have one of those as well, but haven’t found it to be terribly reliable/effective

FWIW, and you may already do this, I have found that wetting the stopper opening a bit (then shaking it off) before pumping seems to produce a more reliable longer lasting vacuum seal. When I forget to do this, the seal seems to give way sooner than I would like.

I used these years ago, and I found that, after a glass or two, they completely annihilated the aromas. The problem, I think, it that you’re reducing the air pressure, which causes aroma compounds in the wine to evaporate – it basically sucked the volatile stuff you want to smell into the headspace. Beyond a glass or two, the wines were consistently degraded, I found. And I refrigerated after opening.

Also, it’s not creating anything like a vacuum, so there’s oxygen in there. It’s just sucking out some of the air.

I still use the stoppers without the pump, though!

Same here - they are useful as stoppers, now that we never use the pump anymore