Wine saver pump

Seems like it would better to flood the bottle with CO2 and stand it upright.

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I have one. The vacuum function is good enough that the cork is tough to pull out 2 days later. I wouldn’t try to defend a claim that it is otherwise any better than just replacing the cork.

If you need to make wine last a while (for example you live alone and like a glass of wine with dinner but not a whole bottle), best is to buy boxed wine. Unfortunately, it is harder to get decent wine in box form in the US than it should be. (There were some very drinkable Malbecs available in boxes at the local Norwegian Vinmonopolet when I was living there.)

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Can’t comment about wine (screw tops have taken much of the market here) but I find it’s okay for sparkling - seems to stop it from going flat as fast as it would otherwise.

Of course, that sort of thing doesn’t last long around here in any case, so I may not have properly performed the experiment…

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A vacuum pump to keep your sparkling wine from going flat? If anything it should exacerbate the problem.

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I studied history, not science :wink:

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What is this “leftover wine?”

I’m baffled.

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Thank you, and yes.

Jebus, I make wine (and beer, and mead, and etc.). I talk a big game, but my palate is probably average.

Reducing oxidation in anything 10% or lower is crucial, if you are taking long term storage. A bigger beverage than that? Eh, it wont make that much of a difference. How do I know? Taste testing my own products side by side. Some oxidized, some not. A couple days of deliberate oxidation tastes nice–mostly it blows off harsh armomas, the flavor is the same.

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A plastic bladder can be used to store wine with all of the air removed. Easily.

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So, one of those flat pack canteens?

You can also just get a wine cruet that holds a half bottle or less and over fill it so that there is no air in it when you put the ground glass stopper in. Simple, no tricks, and no air.

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Most of my wine already comes in one.

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This is how modern wine boxes work. (Not the little single-serving boxes you get in grocery stores in Italy!)

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Nobody mentioned my favorite method of preserving wine after opening: refrigeration. I’m betting that works better and preserves the wine longer than this device.

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Those remnants are primarily useful for pan deglazing in our household.

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Argon or nitrogen are used for that.

As for the vacuum pump ones. My experience is that they do help but really it not going to produce miracles. ( some of the gas based systems claim extending wine life after opening of years).

gasp "Moderately priced domestic non vintage champagne? How did you know?

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We use these. They are good.

I find a bottle of red, half full, will last a couple days without tasting wildly oxidized. Generally I find next-day wine kinda gross.

I’m clearly highly technical in my wine tasting.

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I’ve kept open bottles of the same wine from the same year in a cool dark chiller both with and without using these. I can tell you that in my experience the wine remained fresher, generally doubling to tripling the life of the opened bottle. Nor is oxidization a sudden thing, so even wine that would have lasted a week or two anyway will be less oxidized when it’s reopened.

The partial vacuum is nothing compared to the bottle before the cork is popped, but it does lower the internal pressure enough to slow down oxidization. To remove the rubber cork, you tilt the nipple in the top, and you can hear the pressure equalize, so there is definitely a lower pressure in the bottle. This is also why you never want to use this for bubbles, as the lower pressure allows more of the CO2 to leave the wine.

It’s certainly no miracle worker, but it’s cheap and it keeps the wine a bit fresher.

I haven’t used it myself, but I know some oenophiles like to use nitrogen. CO2 would be harder to get into the bottle long enough to re-cork it, and if you had a tool for pumping it in through a seal, I’d worry about the CO2 pressure causing some of the gas to mix into the wine and you might get a very slight unexpected fizz inappropriate to the taste of the wine, but that’s only a guess.

https://www.amazon.com/Private-Preserve-Wine-Preservation-Spray/dp/B0000DCS18

This is just my personal experience, but distilled spirits improve as the bottle gets lower, though they all have a tipping point, usually at about the last 100 ml or so of a fifth. As long as you re-cork them, the air can’t circulate and won’t cycle away the ethanol and the phenols and other attached volatiles. I generally take about a year to finish a given bottle, as I don’t drink the same thing over and over. I find the ratio of the spirit’s surface in contact with the air in the bottle matters much more than the time, even over that scale.

A fortified fermentation like vermouth will typically last about two to three months after you open it, but it’s profile will stand up better if you keep it chilled.

Unfortified wine - I personally tend to favor rich fruity and/or full-bodied reds and rosés - will last about two to three weeks as long as it’s re-corked after each opening. I like to pour what I want into my decanter or through my aerator to breathe it, and re-cork the bottle immediately. I do find that re-corking with the wine saver pump slightly improves the longevity and decidedly improves the fullness of the nose and palate over the longevity, but then I like strong aromas and tastes, which is why I’m more of a whiskey and gin guy than a wine guy.

I can’t speak to beer as I rarely drink it.

I will say that palates are very personal and idiosyncratic. Someone who doesn’t think they need something like this tool, probably doesn’t, since they know what they like.

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I’ve had one of these for years, and I don’t know if it keeps the wine for longer, but it makes a great cap, you can actually put the bottle on its side in the fridge and it won’t leak.

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